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In his weekly “Hook to the Liver” column published in El Universal, WBC President Jose Sulaiman commented on the decision of Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley to not fight for Mosley’s WBA title to avoid paying the sanctioning fees.
“…it was for me a humiliation and a threat to all world boxing institutions, which are who open the doors to all boxers from their very beginning, bringing them into the world ratings, to give boxers the opportunities to win world titles that lead them to fame and glory,” said Sulaiman. “They enjoy it for a while to fall next into the paws of the giant TV corporations and some promoters, once that boxers have become the top of the cream, taking away the merits and kicking in the behinds of the world sanctioning bodies, once they don’t need them any more, while those organizations continue working, through the good and the bad, to bring more boxers to the top, to see again the same lesson be repeated once and again.
“If this practice is not remedied, and as they can not produce the elite boxers that are born and formed by the modest boxing promoters and the local boxing commissions, boxing will be led to extinction as a great competitive sport in no more than 25 to 50 years.
“Oscar de la Hoya, the promoter, as well as the WBC’s superheroes, Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley, built their greatness on the opportunities that the WBC, and less frequently, other colleague organizations gave them, while HBO reached the top of boxing TV, showing the best fights in half a century of the WBC.
“These three great boxers continue being my personal heroes and absolutely the pride of the WBC, as well as keeping my respects for HBO. But how sad and unfair it is that they have forgotten the institutions that opened their doors and let them to conquer glory and the pride of the boxing fans of the world. As the fight Mayweather-Mosley is going to be exclusively for the money and only to see who is going to win over the other, with no other interest, and as a boxing fan, I have decided to stay home to watch it on the Mexican Televisa, which does recognize and respect always those which have been an important part to take boxers to the heights.”
“…it was for me a humiliation and a threat to all world boxing institutions, which are who open the doors to all boxers from their very beginning, bringing them into the world ratings, to give boxers the opportunities to win world titles that lead them to fame and glory,” said Sulaiman. “They enjoy it for a while to fall next into the paws of the giant TV corporations and some promoters, once that boxers have become the top of the cream, taking away the merits and kicking in the behinds of the world sanctioning bodies, once they don’t need them any more, while those organizations continue working, through the good and the bad, to bring more boxers to the top, to see again the same lesson be repeated once and again.
“If this practice is not remedied, and as they can not produce the elite boxers that are born and formed by the modest boxing promoters and the local boxing commissions, boxing will be led to extinction as a great competitive sport in no more than 25 to 50 years.
“Oscar de la Hoya, the promoter, as well as the WBC’s superheroes, Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley, built their greatness on the opportunities that the WBC, and less frequently, other colleague organizations gave them, while HBO reached the top of boxing TV, showing the best fights in half a century of the WBC.
“These three great boxers continue being my personal heroes and absolutely the pride of the WBC, as well as keeping my respects for HBO. But how sad and unfair it is that they have forgotten the institutions that opened their doors and let them to conquer glory and the pride of the boxing fans of the world. As the fight Mayweather-Mosley is going to be exclusively for the money and only to see who is going to win over the other, with no other interest, and as a boxing fan, I have decided to stay home to watch it on the Mexican Televisa, which does recognize and respect always those which have been an important part to take boxers to the heights.”
I guess missing out on that sanctioning fee really hit the spot ...
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