Comments Thread For: WBC Prez Defends Decision To Make Lomachenko a 'Franchise' Champ

[daggum]

Abdolutely. The belt is a farce. There are no mandatories and it can't be lost in the ring. WTF.

they just want loma to be able to come back at any time because he brings them money. down with capitalism

[Citizen Koba]

The Franchise Champion was bullshit when Canelo got it and it was bullshit when Lomachenko got it.

At least Canelo still made an offer to fight Jermall Charlo, though.

Top Rank completely bypassed Devin Haney which is what they wanted all along.

The question you want to be asking yourself is whether Bob would have asked for it if Devin hadn't have been #1 contender. Do you think Bob would like the idea of being able to make whichever fights he pleased irrespective of mandatories? To have a Champion who could never lose his belt? Course he would, from a promoters point of view it's a no brainer.


Devin's merely a casualty of Bob's greed and the WBCs corruption the way I see it. Bob wanted the Bullchise title for one of his fighters the moment he heard of the damn thing, there's even footage of him praising the concept when they gave it to Canelo. The specific challenger that was impacted ain't really the issue, they would have done it whether it had been Devin or someone else.

[Citizen Koba]

I want to poke an obvious hole in your scenario. You're saying Haney was a mandatory and they gifted Haney with the belt so that that Loma could avoid him. You also say a mandatory had not been ordered yet but it was going to be, and Lomachenko would have had to fight him eventually or else lose the belt.

Again, yeah, it all was about Haney. Not.

1) Haney just happened to be the fighter who got gifted the vacated belt. Usually in those instances they set up a fight for it and don't just award it to the mandatory. But each to their own. By the very notion of being mandatory means he should still have to fight for it, if it is vacated.

Ain't a point of disagreement with the overall content of your post, cos I don't think it was specifically about Haney, but on some matters of technical detail.

Devin who was ranked #1 at the time did in fact win his interim title in the ring against #2 contender Abdullaev.

https://www.boxingscene.com/devin-ha...-title--142269

And under all the sanctioning bodies' rules an interim titlist is to all intents and purposes (cept when it comes to the financials vis a vis the incumbent tilist) a full titlist and is automatically considered Champion should the original titlist vacate or otherwise not be in a position to defend.

3.22 Interim Championship Rule.

In special circumstances, including when the WBC in its sole discretion declares a WBC champion temporarily unavailable to defend his title, the WBC may sanction a bout between Qualified Challengers for an interim championship, or otherwise recognize an interim champion in the division.

In its sole discretion, the WBC shall subsequently determine the timing and terms of any bout between a Champion and Interim Champion to determine a sole champion in the division, provided, however, that an Interim Champion shall never be deemed a mandatory challenger, or entitled to greater share of proceeds of any purse offer beyond thatof a challenger, without a specific prior written orderto that effect from the WBC President or his designee.

For the avoidance of doubt, a WBC Interim World Championship shall be considered a true WBC World title for all purposes, other than with respect to a bout versus the actual World Champion, absent any order to the contrary from the WBC in its sole discretion.

https://wbcboxing.com/en/wbc/rules/

[TonyGe]

yeah i wonder who cheated while using tue's...santa claus?

Are you referring to Canelo?

[TonyGe]

they just want loma to be able to come back at any time because he brings them money. down with capitalism

Yeah it's all about the money. When Canelo vacated the WBC it scared them and they came up with this belt to take away any chance that a top fighter might do it again. Don't know how far they are going to take this. Are going to end up with a franchise champ in every division. How about an interim franchise champ? Or a special anniversary franchise champ. Maybe they should have a special belt for southpaws then a belt for senior fighters over 30 and a separate belt for juniors. They can get really creative here.

[ShoulderRoll]

The question you want to be asking yourself is whether Bob would have asked for it if Devin hadn't have been #1 contender. Do you think Bob would like the idea of being able to make whichever fights he pleased irrespective of mandatories? To have a Champion who could never lose his belt? Course he would, from a promoters point of view it's a no brainer.


Devin's merely a casualty of Bob's greed and the WBCs corruption the way I see it. Bob wanted the Bullchise title for one of his fighters the moment he heard of the damn thing, there's even footage of him praising the concept when they gave it to Canelo. The specific challenger that was impacted ain't really the issue, they would have done it whether it had been Devin or someone else.

Arum would rather match Lomachenko against opponents that he has a piece of. That way no matter who loses he always wins.

Devin is with Eddie Hearn. That messes up Arum's monopoly, so what better way to remove Haney from the picture than by asking for Lomachenko to be named Franchise Champion? They can never be forced to face Devin now no matter what.

It's a perfect scam.

[Citizen Koba]

Arum would rather match Lomachenko against opponents that he has a piece of. That way no matter who loses he always wins.

Devin is with Eddie Hearn. That messes up Arum's monopoly, so what better way to remove Haney from the picture than by asking for Lomachenko to be named Franchise Champion? They can never be forced to face Devin now no matter what.

It's a perfect scam.

Won't disagree with any of that, I've said over many time this franchise crap actually flies right in the face of what the sanctioning bodies purport to be about... In fact it simultaneously de-legitimises the Franchise Champion and devalues the World Championship the way I look at things. Basically another sharp kick in the nuts to a sport already reeling from all the other crap the sanctioning orgs have pulled in the last decade or two.

What folk might not get is that despite all the bullcrap and pointless mandatories the rankings and mandatory system - for all its ridiculous flaws - is closest thing to a meritocracy there is in pro boxing and all that prevents an endless circle jerk of named fighters just fighting each other without giving contenders or unaligned young talent a look in.