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I am not a defender of the sanctioning bodies and their corrupt nature and there is much wrong with them. However, the IBF is not responsible for Leavander Johnson's death.
It could easily be argued that Leavander Johnson should not have been a champion and others, including Ringtalk’s Cliff Rold, have described the political machinations that resulted in Johnson obtaining his title. That only makes the IBF guilty of manipulating the rating system, which every sanctioning body does. Johnson was a good fighter and even a top ten fighter by some ranking systems.
Johnson was a legitimate contender for a title and had fought for world titles before. So it was not like this guy was a bum. His opponent, Jesus Chavez, was a top five super featherweight but certainly not in the league of Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera. This was his first attempt at a lightweight title and he was the smaller fighter moving up in weight.
On paper, this was an intriguing match up and not one major pundit declared this a mismatch before the fight As one boxing historian observed to me, Ringtalk had this fight ranked a close battle during the pre-fight hype. And, there was not a single article written that was critical of Johnson facing Zoff for the vacant title, prior to his untimely death. [details]
It could easily be argued that Leavander Johnson should not have been a champion and others, including Ringtalk’s Cliff Rold, have described the political machinations that resulted in Johnson obtaining his title. That only makes the IBF guilty of manipulating the rating system, which every sanctioning body does. Johnson was a good fighter and even a top ten fighter by some ranking systems.
Johnson was a legitimate contender for a title and had fought for world titles before. So it was not like this guy was a bum. His opponent, Jesus Chavez, was a top five super featherweight but certainly not in the league of Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera. This was his first attempt at a lightweight title and he was the smaller fighter moving up in weight.
On paper, this was an intriguing match up and not one major pundit declared this a mismatch before the fight As one boxing historian observed to me, Ringtalk had this fight ranked a close battle during the pre-fight hype. And, there was not a single article written that was critical of Johnson facing Zoff for the vacant title, prior to his untimely death. [details]