Snips and Snipes 11 March 2021

Scoring and ratings are two of the moist contentious matters in boxing today. I will leave the subject to scoring for the present. As far as ratings are concerned the whole approach is a hotchpotch of 18 divisions with four sanctioning bodies doing their own version and with super, secondary, interim and gold titles we now have 86 boxers claiming to hold a title loosely labelled as “world”.
Ring Magazine can rightfully take the credit for the introducing boxing ratings with their first being published in 1924. That was not straight forward as having the Ring editor or staff compiling the ratings. Hall of Fame writer Nigel Collins wrote in a Ring article in 1987 when introducing the system of world-wide panel/voting that those first ratings were largely compiled by promoter Tex Rickard and when Rickard died it was Jack Dempsey who took over the task before being replaced by Madison Square Garden matchmaker Tom McCardle. A bit like Bob Arum followed by Anthony Joshua then Brad Goodman.
Ring lost its way under the Editorship of Nat Loubet with a ratings scandal leading to the TV companies turning to the sanctioning bodies for ratings. Nigel brought Ring back to its premier position with the panel/voting system but the sanctioning bodies already had their foot in the door by then.
I took a random look back at the Ring ratings in February 1955 when there were only eight divisions and eight genuine world champions and only ten fighters rated in each division. The champions heaviest to lightest being Rocky Marciano, Archie Moore, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio, Wallace (Bud) Smith, Sandy Sadler, Robert Cohen and Pascual Perez. With only eight divisions unlike the eighteen of today life really was tough at the top with so many talented boxers chasing so few positions.
That prompted me to look at the situation today but through the prism of only eight divisions.
It would be tough being a welterweight vying with Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, Terence Crawford, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Mikey Garcia and perhaps current super welterweights Jermell Charlo and Erislandy Lara also in the welterweights. How about a lightweight division with Teo Lopez, Devon Haney, Gervonta Davis, Vasyl Lomachenko, Ryan Garcia with Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez down from the current super lights and Oscar Valdez and Shakur Stevenson up from the super featherweights? Bantamweights? How about Naoya Inoue, Nonito Donaire, John Riel Casimero. Nordine Oubaali plus Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, Srisaket, Jerwin Ancajas and Kazuto Ioka all competing for just ten ratings places and just one title. A super fight a week/month almost guaranteed as the best would have no alternative but to meet the best.
The Chavez clan are preparing for a family outing. In June in Guadalajara the patriarch Julio Cesar Chaves will face Hector Camacho Jr. in an exhibition, Julio Cesar Jr. will face UFC star Anderson Silva and in a real fight between two members of the royalty of Mexican boxing Omar Chavez will face Ramon Alvarez the brother of Saul, Rigoberto and Ricardo Alvarez.
A couple of bumps in the road for Top Rank with Gilberto Ramirez leaving and their losing the purse bidding for Teo Lopez vs. Geroge Kambosos Jr title fight. Triller bid almost 2 ½ times the Top Rank bid and $2.5 more than the next higher bid from Eddie Hearn. That would worry me if I had shares in Triller as Bob Arum and Eddie Hearn have the depth of experience to know what a fight is worth so Triller’s bid strikes me as a loss leader with no guarantee of carry on opportunities to cover what they seem certain to lose on Lopez vs. Kambosos. The fight will be in Miami on 5 June. Australia has been having a bad run in world title fights so Kambosos will be looking to change that. Ramirez is hoping to land a fight with Dimity Bivol the holder of the secondary WBA light heavyweight belt but too often that secondary title can be a blind alley.
Former WBO super welterweight champion Jaime Munguia is scheduled to return to action on April 24. No venue but Shane Mosley Jr is being talked about as his opponent. Munguia’s aim is a crack at Gennady Golovkin’s IBF middleweight title which would be an interesting match unlike Golovkin vs. German Patrick Wojcicki. With No’s 1 and 2 vacant Wojcicki is in No 3 one spot above Munguia. Wojcicki can’t go to one of those vacant spots because he has never beaten a rated fight-but is rated for winning the IBF Inter-Continental title. Golovkin vs. Wojcicki would be the IBF’s version of Alvarez vs. Yildirim.
The top two spots in the IBF super lightweights are also vacant. The plan is for two eliminators Lewis Ritson (No 6) vs. Jeremias Ponce (No 5) and Subriel Matias (No 7) vs. Batyrzhan Jukembayev (No 8) with no mention of No 3 Liam Paro and Shohjahon Ergashev (No 4) needless to say-but I will-none of these fighters are No 1 or No 2 as they have not beaten any rated fighters.
It looks as though Mikey Garcia has drawn the winning ticket in the lottery to fight Manny Pacquiao. There are two schools of thought. One says Manny should go for Errol Spence or Terence Crawford and one that says Garcia is a good pick. At 43 and without a fight since July 2019 Spence and Crawford I think would be too tough for Manny at this late stage of his career. Losing to either would not seriously tarnish his position as one of the all time greats in our sport but it would be a pity to see him go out on a loss. Garcia is ten years younger and a four-division champion with a 40-1 record with the loss to Errol Spence his only defeat in his 6-1 record in world title fights. OK he is not Spence or Crawford and it is a fight that would have been better five years ago but it makes a sensible and less threatening fight to go out on so beat Garcia and hang up your gloves Congressman. Any last fight in fact any fight except Conor McGregor is a plus.
With eight fights in 30 months Russian Evgeny Tischenko has hardly been super busy or whizzed through the ratings. He is currently No 15 with the WBC but on 27 March in Ekaterinburg he tackles the WBC No 1 Thabiso Mchunu for the WBC Silver title. The 6’5” southpaw, now 29, won gold medals at European Youth, European Under-23, European Championships, World Championships and the 2016 Olympics so a full hand now he needs to get past Mchunu and then WBC champion Ilunga Makabu to turn gold and silver into a world title.
It was a case of working overtime for Brandun Lee and Brian Norman Jr last night (Wednesday) in Uncasville. Super lightweight Lee knocked out Samuel Teah in three rounds and welterweight Norman stopped unbeaten Benjamin Whitaker in five rounds. Going in Lee had won 19 of his 21 fights by KO/TKO including 11 first round victories with his 21 wins taking less than 38 rounds and Norman ended 15 of his 18 fights by KO/TKO, including 10 first round finishes and less than 42 rounds for his 16 victories. Just as well they are not paid by the round.
This weekend it is Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Roman Gonzalez in Dallas a great match and on the same card Hiroto Kyoguchi defending the WBA light flyweight title against Axel Aragon Vega and in Uncasville David Benavidez vs. Ronald Ellis with Benavidez carrying a faint hope of a fight with Saul Alvarez down the line-but don’t hold your breath David. On 19 March in Bolton Karim Guerfi defends the Europe bantam title against unbeaten Lee McGregor. On 20 March Artur Beterbiev puts the IBF and WBC light heavyweight titles up against Adam Deines, Lawrence Okolie and Krzys Glowacki contest the vacant WBO cruiser title in London and in Texas Vergil Ortiz faces a hard night against Maurice Hooker.
Going back to the champions in 1955 it is nonsense to attempt to compare boxers from different eras. When Archie Moore won the light heavyweight title in December 1952 he had already packed 160 fights into 17 years before getting a title shot. Sandy Saddler won the featherweight title on 29 October 1948 having already had 94 fights (Willie Pep who he beat was 134-1-1before losing the Saddler fight) and Sadler fitted in four more non-title fights over November and December. Different times. Not better-not worse but very different.