It was a big weekend for ignoring the sanctioning bodies that give out belts and rank boxers. On ESPN's Friday Night Fights, Joe Tessitore said that opponents Lucian Bute and Sakio Bika were rated 6th and 10th in the world at super middleweight -- by Ring magazine. He didn't mention the three-letter organizations. On Saturday night, Bob Papa began HBO's main event by saying Lovemore N'Dou held the 140-pound title of "one of the sanctioning bodies." He never said which one. On-screen graphics during the N'Dou-Paulie Malignaggi fight simply billed it as "140-POUND CHAMPIONSHIP." Could this be an attempt to unify the opposition to the Scrabble-tile sanctioning cartels?
Father's Day: Tonight watch or tape Daddy's Girl (TV One, 8 p.m.). It's a look at Laila Ali and her well-known dad. Here's a People magazine item about it.
2 comments:
I've been noticing a growing acceptance of the Ring Rankings and belt rules, and far fewer references to the sanctioning bodies.
I hope that this eventually results in more 1 vs. "mandatory" 2 or 3's (via Ring's system) in the future. It seems like there would be money in these fights, but I must be wrong. The sanctioning bodies seem to have no trouble making money on "safe" i.e. non-competitive match-ups.
It seems the networks still get some juice out of promoting a bad fight as a title fight even when they don't recognize the sanctioning body by name. So they probably are keeping those fights happening. What if they refused to acknowledge it as a title bout at all?!
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