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Jose Sulaiman, grand puppetmaster of the sport and WBC President, has long irritated boxing fans by manipulating rankings and WBC title fights to pocket more money for his business.
If you have won the title in the ring don't expect to hang onto it even if you try to fight the best. There are other factors to consider, such as...do you intend on unifying...?
We may all remember that Devon Alexander almost had his WBC belt ripped from his waist, because he wanted to fight Bradley.
Or how about if neither of the fighters are champions, but it's a mega event, we, the WBC, can throw our hat into the ring and make some $$$ for our business. Let's make a belt that won't really be the Championship of the World, but the fighters will still wear it proudly and they'll pay us biggg $$$ in return. We'll call it the Silver/Diamond belt.
In the lead up to their fourth encounter, Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez were chosen by Sulaiman to fight for one of the silver/diamond belts. Marquez agreed, but Vasquez refused.
'The president for life didn't like the decision. How dare Vazquez refuse to fight for his pointless/meaningless/expensive/garbage trinket! How dare he refuse to pay up!
Espinoza had declined the invitation to fight for the belt in a letter to the WBC a month before the May 22 fight. The feeling on the Vazquez side was that he was near the end of his career and wanted to keep as much of his career-high payday of $800,000 as possible. There was no need to spend thousands of dollars on a title, especially one that was basically meaningless. In other words, thanks for the offer, but no thanks. Good for Vazquez.
But that wasn't good enough for Sulaiman, who continued to pursue Vazquez. The holier-than-thou president for life couldn't handle the rejection because, after all, the boxing world is supposed to revolve around him and his fiefdom, where no members of his puppet board of governors ever tell him no.
Sulaiman, filled with righteous indignation, wrote a hysterical letter back to Espinoza, blasting them for rejecting the silver belt.
''I would never believe that you, much less Israel, would take such an action stepping shamelessly on the organization and the person that have placed every step of the ladder in the whole career of Israel Vazquez, including his election as Emeritus WBC World Champion, after his surgery, when no one was sure that he would come back to boxing, [a] crown to which very few and selected champions have ever been appointed to.
"At the 78 years of my life, to accept something so cynical, disrespectful and unfair for the WBC and myself -- as your decision is, without a doubt -- is just leading me to doubt if my nonprofit 66 years [of] life in boxing has been worth it. Yours Mr. Espinoza, is a shameless and inhuman action, as there is not one single minute of my knowing you and Israel that I have not offered you my unlimited and full support, and your action has been so morally hurting to me that I cannot keep it to myself, as I have always done in the past.
"I kindly ask you to please return to the WBC the Emeritus Championship belt, which was presented to Israel with your presence in a special press ceremony in Mexico City. … This is an experience that I will never forget for the rest of my period in life."
http://espn.go.com/sports/boxing/blo...dan/id/5223721
Then let us not forget about the type of character that Sulaiman is, nevermind his wretched WBC.
In the famous Tyson-Douglas fight, the referee, Octavio Meyran, was bullied by the irrepresible tag-team duo of Don King and Jose Sulaiman, for his administering of the famous 'long count'.
Years later, Meyran said that in the lead up to the fight, Sulaiman told him to ''Be hard with Douglas, and be nice to Tyson.''. Of course, Meyran refused.
Furthermore in the famous post-fight press conference when King so boldly forged his protest, Sulaiman pressured Meyran telling him to just say to the media that he had 'made a mistake'.
So the question is, in a sport this crooked it's easy to see how the scum rises to the top. But how long will it last, and will the sport be better for it, when Sulaiman eventually steps down from the WBC?
Or is the entire WBC organisation and furthermore the terrible trio of alphabet title organisations (IBF,WBA,WBO) behind it just as sinister?
If you have won the title in the ring don't expect to hang onto it even if you try to fight the best. There are other factors to consider, such as...do you intend on unifying...?
We may all remember that Devon Alexander almost had his WBC belt ripped from his waist, because he wanted to fight Bradley.
Or how about if neither of the fighters are champions, but it's a mega event, we, the WBC, can throw our hat into the ring and make some $$$ for our business. Let's make a belt that won't really be the Championship of the World, but the fighters will still wear it proudly and they'll pay us biggg $$$ in return. We'll call it the Silver/Diamond belt.
In the lead up to their fourth encounter, Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez were chosen by Sulaiman to fight for one of the silver/diamond belts. Marquez agreed, but Vasquez refused.
'The president for life didn't like the decision. How dare Vazquez refuse to fight for his pointless/meaningless/expensive/garbage trinket! How dare he refuse to pay up!
Espinoza had declined the invitation to fight for the belt in a letter to the WBC a month before the May 22 fight. The feeling on the Vazquez side was that he was near the end of his career and wanted to keep as much of his career-high payday of $800,000 as possible. There was no need to spend thousands of dollars on a title, especially one that was basically meaningless. In other words, thanks for the offer, but no thanks. Good for Vazquez.
But that wasn't good enough for Sulaiman, who continued to pursue Vazquez. The holier-than-thou president for life couldn't handle the rejection because, after all, the boxing world is supposed to revolve around him and his fiefdom, where no members of his puppet board of governors ever tell him no.
Sulaiman, filled with righteous indignation, wrote a hysterical letter back to Espinoza, blasting them for rejecting the silver belt.
''I would never believe that you, much less Israel, would take such an action stepping shamelessly on the organization and the person that have placed every step of the ladder in the whole career of Israel Vazquez, including his election as Emeritus WBC World Champion, after his surgery, when no one was sure that he would come back to boxing, [a] crown to which very few and selected champions have ever been appointed to.
"At the 78 years of my life, to accept something so cynical, disrespectful and unfair for the WBC and myself -- as your decision is, without a doubt -- is just leading me to doubt if my nonprofit 66 years [of] life in boxing has been worth it. Yours Mr. Espinoza, is a shameless and inhuman action, as there is not one single minute of my knowing you and Israel that I have not offered you my unlimited and full support, and your action has been so morally hurting to me that I cannot keep it to myself, as I have always done in the past.
"I kindly ask you to please return to the WBC the Emeritus Championship belt, which was presented to Israel with your presence in a special press ceremony in Mexico City. … This is an experience that I will never forget for the rest of my period in life."
http://espn.go.com/sports/boxing/blo...dan/id/5223721
Then let us not forget about the type of character that Sulaiman is, nevermind his wretched WBC.
In the famous Tyson-Douglas fight, the referee, Octavio Meyran, was bullied by the irrepresible tag-team duo of Don King and Jose Sulaiman, for his administering of the famous 'long count'.
Years later, Meyran said that in the lead up to the fight, Sulaiman told him to ''Be hard with Douglas, and be nice to Tyson.''. Of course, Meyran refused.
Furthermore in the famous post-fight press conference when King so boldly forged his protest, Sulaiman pressured Meyran telling him to just say to the media that he had 'made a mistake'.
So the question is, in a sport this crooked it's easy to see how the scum rises to the top. But how long will it last, and will the sport be better for it, when Sulaiman eventually steps down from the WBC?
Or is the entire WBC organisation and furthermore the terrible trio of alphabet title organisations (IBF,WBA,WBO) behind it just as sinister?
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