Middleweight Mess

Middleweight Mess "It's not fair," says Sergio Martinez

By David A. Avila

Mere mention of the middleweight division conjures black and white photographic images of Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Greb and Mickey Walker to boxing historians. All are names in the past that represented emblematic portraits of prizefighters for the past 100 years.

All of those former world champions were known throughout the world as the very best 160-pound prizefighters in their era. Nobody contested it verbally or literally. It was fact.

Today, with the dizzying number of sanctioning organizations claiming their titleholders are the champions, a rut of sort has taken place, especially in the middleweight division.

Not through fault of his own, Riverside’s Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KOs) defends a version of the WBC middleweight title against fellow Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1, 46 KOs). The match takes place Saturday Nov. 4, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. HBO will televise.

Don’t be fooled.

The true WBC middleweight champion is Sergio Martinez who won the title when he thoroughly defeated Kelly Pavlik back on April 17, 2010. Since then, the Argentine has successfully defended the title three times including a devastating one-punch knockout win over Paul Williams on Nov. 2010. Despite Martinez’s success, Chavez was granted the middleweight title while the WBC organization created something called the WBC Diamond middleweight title that supposedly supersedes the regular WBC middleweight title.

Why?

Organizations like the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO are paid sanctioning fees by their respective champions. Each champion is ordered to pay on average about $2,000 minimum or about three percent of their purse to claim or fight for those titles. The more world champions the more money the sanctioning organizations make.

Martinez, when he became middleweight world champion, was more than willing to accept paying those fees to keep the title. But when another title was created and Chavez beat Sebastian Zbik last June to capture that lesser version, it very much irked the Argentine southpaw.

Why wasn’t Chavez forced to fight Martinez for the real version?

“It’s not fair,” says Martinez who trains in Port Hueneme, Calif. “I try to fight the best fighters out there.”

Sanctioning organizations like the WBC, IBF and others have made a mess out of the professional sport of boxing. Today there are super champions, regular champions, silver champions and dozens of other titles bestowed on anyone willing to pay for those belts.

The four aforementioned sanctioning organizations are not alone. There are WBF, UBF, IBA, IBC and many other alphabet organizations with titles available for purchase.

Simply put, Chavez is not the real WBC middleweight champion and should not be reprimanded for having the title. However, he definitely should fight Martinez who is the true WBC middleweight champion to be a real titleholder.

Factually, Martinez is not merely the WBC middleweight champion he is the actual middleweight world champion period. When he beat Pavlik he beat the man who beat the man.

In July 2005, Bernard Hopkins held all of the major middleweight world titles WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF when he was defeated by Jermain Taylor. Then, in September 2009, Taylor was defeated by Pavlik who was subsequently beaten by Martinez.

It’s a large shell game that sanctioning organizations play. Fans can’t keep up with the dizzying antics of the organizations and promoters and have no idea that it occurs.

Last week the WBC head man sent out a press release chastising Martinez for not accepting their mandates.

“I am sure that he (Chavez) will respond to the spirit of Mexicans to prove with his valiant heart to fight to show that he is the real middleweight champion of the world, even when mercenaries try to tarnish his credibility,” said WBC president Jose Sulaiman ironically.

Meanwhile, the real champion Martinez wonders why the WBC devised this problem in the first place?

“His title is a big lie,” said Martinez about Chavez’s claims to the WBC title. “I’m never going to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.”

Too bad. It would be a fight the fans would love to see.

Fights on television

Fri. ESPN2, 6 p.m., Isaac Chilemba (18-1-1) vs. Edison Miranda (35-6).

Sat. pay-per-view, 6 p.m., Nick Diaz (27-7-1) vs. Carlos Condit (27-5); Roy Nelson (17-6) vs. Fabricio Verdum (14-5-1); Josh Koscheck (18-5) vs. Mike Pierce (13-4).

Sat. HBO, 7:30 p.m., Nonito Donaire (27-1) vs. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1); Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1) vs. Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1).

Sat. Telefutura, 11 p.m., Ronny Rios (16-0) vs. Jeremy McLaurin (9-2).