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August 04, 2011
WBC PASSES OVER KENDALL HOLT AND OTHERS IN ERIK MORALES TITLE GRAB
By Scott Shaffer
In the wake of the WBC's indefensible, and possibly illegal, decision to strip Tim Bradley of his 140-pound title, the Mexican-based sanctioning body has ignored the rights of a second American fighter in order to facilitate a title fight for one of its favorite sons. In order to railroad through an Erik Morales title fight, the WBC is denying New Jersey's Kendall Holt his right to fight for the vacant title. Holt's attorney, Patrick English said today, "Kendall is available to fight Morales for the title. There has been talk of Holt fighting Danny Garcia but that's not signed yet. Kendall doesn't understand how he got skipped over by the WBC and would welcome a title fight." Most observers feel strongly that the WBC selectively enforced an obscure rule to strip Bradley, an American, in order to put Morales, a Mexican, in position to fight for, and win another WBC title. Bradley has been sued by his promoter and may become unavailable, but the normal procedure is for the WBC to wait until Bradley's mandatory defense is due and then call for a purse bid between Bradley and the #1 contender (currently Devon Alexander, whom Bradley took the title from). Regardless of whether Bradley breached his promotional contract, he fought hard for the title and should not have it summarily taken away outside the ring. The WBC's recent manueverings have earned it criticism around the Internet. Initially, it was announced that Morales would fight Jorge Barrios, who never fought at 140 pounds, for Bradley's former WBC title. Then it was discovered that pending criminal charges could prevent Barrios from coming to the United States to fight Morales, so Barrios was replaced with Lucas Matthysse, a legitimate light welterweight contender rated #7 by the WBC. While Morales-Mathysse is unquestionably an interesting fight, the fact remains that Holt is rated #5 by the WBC, while Mathysse is two spots below him, and legal precedent requires that the highest rated contenders be offered a vacant title fight before lower-rated ones. Besides Holt and Alexander, both of whom are black Americans (**********'s Stephen Edwards has accused the WBC of consistently favoring Mexicans over Amercians, particularly black Americans), the other boxers who would be improperly passed over by a Morales-Matthysse title fight are #2 Ajose Olusegun (Nigeria), #4 Humberto Soto (Mexico) and #6 Ali Chebah (France).
Boxing talk
WBC PASSES OVER KENDALL HOLT AND OTHERS IN ERIK MORALES TITLE GRAB
By Scott Shaffer
In the wake of the WBC's indefensible, and possibly illegal, decision to strip Tim Bradley of his 140-pound title, the Mexican-based sanctioning body has ignored the rights of a second American fighter in order to facilitate a title fight for one of its favorite sons. In order to railroad through an Erik Morales title fight, the WBC is denying New Jersey's Kendall Holt his right to fight for the vacant title. Holt's attorney, Patrick English said today, "Kendall is available to fight Morales for the title. There has been talk of Holt fighting Danny Garcia but that's not signed yet. Kendall doesn't understand how he got skipped over by the WBC and would welcome a title fight." Most observers feel strongly that the WBC selectively enforced an obscure rule to strip Bradley, an American, in order to put Morales, a Mexican, in position to fight for, and win another WBC title. Bradley has been sued by his promoter and may become unavailable, but the normal procedure is for the WBC to wait until Bradley's mandatory defense is due and then call for a purse bid between Bradley and the #1 contender (currently Devon Alexander, whom Bradley took the title from). Regardless of whether Bradley breached his promotional contract, he fought hard for the title and should not have it summarily taken away outside the ring. The WBC's recent manueverings have earned it criticism around the Internet. Initially, it was announced that Morales would fight Jorge Barrios, who never fought at 140 pounds, for Bradley's former WBC title. Then it was discovered that pending criminal charges could prevent Barrios from coming to the United States to fight Morales, so Barrios was replaced with Lucas Matthysse, a legitimate light welterweight contender rated #7 by the WBC. While Morales-Mathysse is unquestionably an interesting fight, the fact remains that Holt is rated #5 by the WBC, while Mathysse is two spots below him, and legal precedent requires that the highest rated contenders be offered a vacant title fight before lower-rated ones. Besides Holt and Alexander, both of whom are black Americans (**********'s Stephen Edwards has accused the WBC of consistently favoring Mexicans over Amercians, particularly black Americans), the other boxers who would be improperly passed over by a Morales-Matthysse title fight are #2 Ajose Olusegun (Nigeria), #4 Humberto Soto (Mexico) and #6 Ali Chebah (France).
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