Comments Thread For: WBO Confirm Lightweight Champ Terry Flanagan Moves To 140

[giacomino]

He’ll get a cupcake title fight like Burns and milk another belt, like he did at lightweight. Just padding his bank account fighting nobodies in another weight class.

[KING5TWENTY]

British fans dont denounce there scared fighters who.duck luke Amerucan fans. Americans sre to harsh on there fightets and british are to soft.

[Mexican_Puppet]

British is the worst fan base of boxing

[Squ□redCircle34]

What the ***?

What type of sh!+ is this??

This man just ducked Linares and we ALL know he wanted no parts of Garcia but got damn, Linares for all his speed and skills is fragile!

With them feather dusters for punches I can see him getting stretched out at 140 unless he holds a vacant title hostage beating bin collectors and dishwashers in UK!

Flanagan would lose to Postol and maybe even Indongo, heck Broner might be able to beat him at 140!

Well, atleast we'll get another good fight maybe sometime next year with Beltran vs Verdejo!

[Randall Cunning]

British fans dont denounce there scared fighters who.duck luke Amerucan fans. Americans sre to harsh on there fightets and british are to soft.

Not this time man, Flanagan and Warren been getting **** all day over this.

[Shams627]

Why do fans always say this? As if boxing isn't means for this man to make a living.

As if he would turn down Garcia. It's prizefighting. He's not a popular champion even in Britain with its boxing renaissance.

As someone else eluded to. Unfortunately Flanagan also has the personality of a door knob. I am assuming this dude genuinely can't make the weight because I can't see where the money is for him.

I've never seen Hooker fight but I am assuming he could beat Flanagan if he is a good world-level fighter.

Apparently Darley Perez beat hooker but they robbed him of the win.

[Boxing Logic]

Arum and Warren controlling the WBO is no secret.

Crawford moves up to 147, where he'll essentially automatically become champion.

While vacating his 140 pound title, where Flanagan moves up to essentially automatically become champion.

Freeing up the 135 pound title, where Beltran essentially automatically becomes champion.


Arum and Warren fighters moving up in concert to ensure the vacant belts all wind up on Arum and Warren fighters.


The WBO is not a world title, it's the puppet title of 2-3 promoters who can get the WBO to do anything they wish.

I've heard this theory about Arum and the WBO before, but can you explain the Frank Warren angle? What you're describing would mean that Warren and Arum would have had to coordinate with each other as well, or with each other through the WBO at least. Do they have a history together, like Schaeffer and Haymon do? What is the story?

[N/A]

I've heard this theory about Arum and the WBO before, but can you explain the Frank Warren angle?

In the early days of the WBO, when NOBODY considered them a world title, Warren put them on the map by constantly featuring WBO titles back when Warren ruled UK boxing. Warren basically had a monopoly on the WBO as nobody else recognized them, but the UK needed title fights and with Don King and Arum having all the WBC/WBA/IBF belts locked up, Warren could have the WBO all to himself since nobody wanted it to begin with.

But Warren did such a good job of helping the WBO get off the ground that eventually he couldn't maintain his stranglehold any longer, so Warren started resorting to the WBU so he could continue to have title fights whenever he wanted.

Before the IBF existed, Don King controlled the WBC and Arum controlled the WBA. King and Arum liked it this way as it boxed out all the other promoters and they each had plenty of title fights. Don King had the better deal though as he was personal friends with Sulaiman and didn't have to bribe the WBC. Sulaiman was independently wealthy and refused to take bribes. He'd play favorites for his friends, but you didn't have to buy him off.

Meanwhile, the WBA bribes were getting more and more expensive. It was getting ridiculous. Arum didn't mind at first though because he was the only one that could afford the bribes and it helped him maintain his WBA monopoly. When the Americans tried to take back control of the WBA to get rid of the corruption, Arum used his influence to prevent the Americans from regaining control as he feared he'd lose his monopoly. So the Americans pulled out of the WBA and started the IBF.

Then Don King pulled a G move. He already had the WBC in his pocket, so why not start out bidding Arum on the WBA bribes and then Don King could control both titles? That's what King did. Now King controlled everything. Arum, out foxed at his own game, pissed that Don King was out bribing him, went public about the bribes and explained exactly how it all worked, who you had to bribe, etc. Then Arum jumped in bed with the IBF and now King controlled the WBC & WBA and Arum did everything in his power to put the IBF on the map and control the IBF.

But the WBA's bag man who funneled all the bribes was disgraced and publicly shamed when Arum had exposed him by name. So he was blackballed by the WBA and started the WBO.

Eventually the IBF become just as corrupt as the WBA and Don King started out bidding Arum on the IBF bribes as well. Arum was a man without an island. He had De La Hoya, which meant a Mexican following, which helped him gain some power in the WBC. Not as much as King, but with King trying to control all three now, there were some WBC scraps for Arum. But Arum wanted to control his own org, like he had with the WBA and then later with the IBF, so Arum threw all his weight behind the IBA just as Warren was doing with the WBU as both were used to having a monopoly of one of the groups and if they couldn't have a monopoly of an existing group, they'd try to prop up a new one.

The plan didn't work though. There were just too many sanctioning bodies. The owners of the WBU and IBA ended up dying a few years later and Arum and Warren both started focusing fully on the WBO. They've managed to share it ever since, although Arum has way more pull than Warren at this point. With Hearn kicking Warren's ass, Warren has to just live with what he can get. But yes, Arum and Warren do coordinate. Look what just happened at the WBO convention with the belts all being vacated in concert with Arum & Warren fighters all being named #1 in each division.

Hearn and Haymon are so dominant with the WBC, WBA and IBF that Arum and Warren, as second fiddle in each of their markets, have to settle for the WBO. But it can get ridiculous. I think very recently 9 of the 17 WBO champions were with Arum? And if you cut out the bottom 5 divisions which are usually controlled by Asians, it meant Arum had 9 of the top 12 weight classes of the WBO. It's crazy. Warren had the rest.

[Sparked_26]

He can make decent money as an undefeated fighter. If he would've fought Mikey, he'd show the world how average he is

The money fight for him was Crolla at lightweight when they both had titles. Even that couldn't get made.

Not sure how much money he makes but I bet it is far, far, far less than Crolla and Ricky Burns who own several losses between them

[Sparked_26]

In the early days of the WBO, when NOBODY considered them a world title, Warren put them on the map by constantly featuring WBO titles back when Warren ruled UK boxing. Warren basically had a monopoly on the WBO as nobody else recognized them, but the UK needed title fights and with Don King and Arum having all the WBC/WBA/IBF belts locked up, Warren could have the WBO all to himself since nobody wanted it to begin with.

But Warren did such a good job of helping the WBO get off the ground that eventually he couldn't maintain his stranglehold any longer, so Warren started resorting to the WBU so he could continue to have title fights whenever he wanted.

Before the IBF existed, Don King controlled the WBC and Arum controlled the WBA. King and Arum liked it this way as it boxed out all the other promoters and they each had plenty of title fights. Don King had the better deal though as he was personal friends with Sulaiman and didn't have to bribe the WBC. Sulaiman was independently wealthy and refused to take bribes. He'd play favorites for his friends, but you didn't have to buy him off.

Meanwhile, the WBA bribes were getting more and more expensive. It was getting ridiculous. Arum didn't mind at first though because he was the only one that could afford the bribes and it helped him maintain his WBA monopoly. When the Americans tried to take back control of the WBA to get rid of the corruption, Arum used his influence to prevent the Americans from regaining control as he feared he'd lose his monopoly. So the Americans pulled out of the WBA and started the IBF.

Then Don King pulled a G move. He already had the WBC in his pocket, so why not start out bidding Arum on the WBA bribes and then Don King could control both titles? That's what King did. Now King controlled everything. Arum, out foxed at his own game, pissed that Don King was out bribing him, went public about the bribes and explained exactly how it all worked, who you had to bribe, etc. Then Arum jumped in bed with the IBF and now King controlled the WBC & WBA and Arum did everything in his power to put the IBF on the map and control the IBF.

But the WBA's bag man who funneled all the bribes was disgraced and publicly shamed when Arum had exposed him by name. So he was blackballed by the WBA and started the WBO.

Eventually the IBF become just as corrupt as the WBA and Don King started out bidding Arum on the IBF bribes as well. Arum was a man without an island. He had De La Hoya, which meant a Mexican following, which helped him gain some power in the WBC. Not as much as King, but with King trying to control all three now, there were some WBC scraps for Arum. But Arum wanted to control his own org, like he had with the WBA and then later with the IBF, so Arum threw all his weight behind the IBA just as Warren was doing with the WBU as both were used to having a monopoly of one of the groups and if they couldn't have a monopoly of an existing group, they'd try to prop up a new one.

The plan didn't work though. There were just too many sanctioning bodies. The owners of the WBU and IBA ended up dying a few years later and Arum and Warren both started focusing fully on the WBO. They've managed to share it ever since, although Arum has way more pull than Warren at this point. With Hearn kicking Warren's ass, Warren has to just live with what he can get. But yes, Arum and Warren do coordinate. Look what just happened at the WBO convention with the belts all being vacated in concert with Arum & Warren fighters all being named #1 in each division.

Hearn and Haymon are so dominant with the WBC, WBA and IBF that Arum and Warren, as second fiddle in each of their markets, have to settle for the WBO. But it can get ridiculous. I think very recently 9 of the 17 WBO champions were with Arum? And if you cut out the bottom 5 divisions which are usually controlled by Asians, it meant Arum had 9 of the top 12 weight classes of the WBO. It's crazy. Warren had the rest.

This was a great post, thanks.