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Who Will Rid Me of These Turbulent Boxing Commissions?



By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Who will rid me of these turbulent commissions… Can boxing manage to regulate or shall regulations manage to continue to spoil boxing?

In the United Kingdom there are a couple of sports that have shown a way through the mire of regulation.

Snooker and darts

Both, by the way, are promoted by Matchroom.

In snooker, the 1980s was a golden era. It is still very much a British game and this year, the world champion is only the 5th non British player to achieve the ultimate prize. By the tail end of the 1980s the millions who would normally tune in to watch it was beginning to dwindle. Matchroom and Eddie Hearn’s dad, Barry saw what was coming and they did a fairly impressive wee dance and refocused things. Many years later we are seeing the emergence of a Chinese market, a global brand that is beginning to sweep some of the countries where there are emerging players and like some form of commissioner, streamlining of the sport came about because Barry Hearn took charge. He drove change and made sure it happened. As the sport was governed in the UK, in one country, that was fairly easy to achieve. It could be argued that boxing has some similarities given the global dominance of the US.

If snooker was an impressive saving of the brand, darts was the masterstroke. Taking two fat blokes throwing pointy things at a board and making it a phenomenon with nicknames, walk on themes, dancing girls and all the razzamatazz of the boxing world, even with ring announcers, was hardly a difficult thing to envisage – after all Barry Hearn built Matchroom in the rings and small halls of the UK in boxing so he could see parallels and possibilities.

But Hearn joined after the real major change had happened. Players, unhappy at the way the sport was being run, left the British Darts Organization, who ran the game worldwide, and set themselves up at the Professional Darts Corporation. The BDO went bankrupt last year and the PDC runs world darts. It was, if you like, a new commission, that dominated because of the buy in by the players. One game run by one body. Imagine that.

In boxing we can’t. this is now known as the four belt era. Anyone fighting for all 4 belts, the WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA is recognized as the one true champion. Last year Boxing News in the UK, took the bold move to stop recognizing individual champions as world champions and follow the Transnational Boxing Rankings which state that if number 1 fights number 2 then, even if no belts are on the line, the winner is THE world champion.

It makes things one hell of a lot easier, doesn’t it?

Does it?

For boxing to emulate darts with one governing body or snooker with a commissioner or all powerful person at the top managing the rules and implementing the changes, this is what lots of fans call for all the time.

It will probably never happen. Why?

Because in this era, money does not just talk – it shouts itself from the rooftops…

To get one body would need people to hand in their check books and give up on their riches. If you get a belt and call yourself world champion, then you bristle with pride. Even if, the 5th belt – the IBO – is on the line it is a boost to your career. Having a belt means people want to fight you.

And there is where criticism happens all the time – the best do not fight the best because there is no real management to world boxing, sports stars can pick and choose who they face and we never get the best against the best like in other sports.

Really?

Any sport involving a knockout does not always get the best against the best – US Open, Soccer World Cup, even the Super Bowl…

Without that overarching body, making the rules and more importantly, enforcing them we are left with occasional super fights, now and then spectacles, but also the speculation around the mess of making fights – any fights – lasting for longer than some mini-series.

And so, there does not seem to be the appetite at the big tables for change, despite the fact that there are huge numbers of fans wanting it, calling for it and desperate to see it. We are left with what we have and hope that if rumors are true over the likely heavyweight championship in the Middle East this year, we do get something close enough to a championship to find the one true heavyweight champion we can rest easy that the best for now have finally fought the best. But it is money and not sense talking as they sportswash a regime whose human rights record should not be graced with boxing. But then again that’s a fan’s views and not someone with the influence to affect change. Maybe that day shall come…

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