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Ricardo Lois
Latino Boxing Examiner
November 24th, 2010
Boxing's sanctioning organizations - those which commission world championships and maintain rankings - are a joke. Any boxing fan or writer can tell you that world titles and rankings are manipulated by the men and women who run these sanctioning organizations.
Now the World Boxing Association (WBA) had made a complete mockery out there yearly Fighter of the Year Award.
During their annual convention the WBA announced that their heavyweight title holder David Haye (25-1, 23 KOs) was recognized as Fighter of the Year. Haye captures the award after a 2010 campaign which consisted of predictable victories over John Ruiz (38 years old and with a record of 3-3 in his previous six fights) and Audley Harrison (39 years old and nothing more than a fringe world title contender).
The WBA turned their backs on junior flyweight Giovanni Segura (25-1-1, 21 KOs), who handed former pound for pound ranked Ivan Calderon his first defeat in August.
Segura's sizeable feat in the land of boxing's smallest men was not even worthy of a honorable mention from the WBA, as the association gave Miguel Cotto the honor.
What did Miguel Cotto do to deserve a honorable mention the eyes of the WBA? Score a ninth round TKO against feather-fisted Yuri Foreman back in June.
Why would the WBA make these decisions while by-passing the efforts of Segura, even though they recognized Segura vs. Calderon as Fight of the Year?
One possible reason is the amount of money Haye and Cotto make in comparison to Segura.
The purses of Haye and Cotto, when they fight, are over a million dollars, while Segura will be unlikely to make a million dollars in anyone of his fights. So when the WBA gets a percentage of the purse for sanctioning a world title fight featuring Cotto or Haye, it is much larger than that of Segura.
Give Haye and Cotto a meaningless award, create goodwill with their teams, and maybe the fighters hold on to the WBA title, instead of dumping the meaningless title and closing a revenue stream.
Congratulations to Giovanni Segura for a significant victory, even though the World Boxing Association failed to recognize his accomplishment.