Trout sues WBO for $40 mil

[boxing_rocks]

In general, I think that boxers have to protect their rights against unjustified decisions of the ABC orgs, commissions, etc. I am just wondering what took Trout two years to figure out that his rights were violated.

http://www.BS.com/austin-trout ... bo--120003

[FastestHandsInThewest]

Good for him.

[Lackeos]

I've calculated that the amount he's actually entitled to is closer to... 'bout tree fiddy.

[gilgamesh]

I figure they'll wind up settling with him for a lot less money, and simply returning him to the rankings.

[RScarf1]

I'm surprised he got a Puerto Rican lawyer willing to take the case against the Puerto Rico based WBO. He deserves to win, but Puerto Rico is a territory of the U.S. and not a state. What if he loses? Can he appeal? Just because he was scheduled to fight someone else, that does not give the WBO the right to remove him from their ratings even if he was unavailable for the title shot.

[lazboy]

I've calculated that the amount he's actually entitled to is closer to... 'bout tree fiddy.

He'll end up giving that to the Loch Ness monster as per usual.

[Boxing Prospect]

The idea a fighter "requests" to be ranked feels ...wrong

[RScarf1]

The idea a fighter "requests" to be ranked feels ...wrong

This is usually done at the conventions, but by the representative of the boxer and not the boxers themselves. I was at the IBF convention and basically the IBF ratings chairman would say the division and then people would make suggestions which were boxers that they represent. People such as promoters would also be asking for boxers to be rated by the IBF and then they would say reasons why such as the boxer's record and who they won against. Heavyweight Jarrell Miller was there with someone else, but he was the only boxer I saw at the ratings meeting. It is ridiculous that a boxer should have to request to be rated outside of the yearly conventions, especially when he was rated previously and then removed from the ratings for no legitimate reason.

[boxing_rocks]

ABC rankings really suck. For example, Lubin is not in IBF rankings but is present in the other 3, while Hurd and Trout are only in IBF rankings but absent in the other 3. I doubt that they have strict criteria for forming their ranking.

[Enlightened-One]

So Trout was eliminated from the WBO rankings and also dismissed from being considered for a shot at the vacant WBO world title, with the fighter claiming it was for no reason.

WBO President Paco Valcarcel’s only comeback (according to this article anyway), was that Trout had already committed himself to facing Hernandez, so he wasn’t available to fight Liam Smith for the vacant belt.

I don’t understand the reason why the WBO would then remove certain fighters from their rankings if they were next in line to fight for a vacant world title, simply because they weren’t available at that precise moment in time to compete for the vacant championship?

Did Trout have enough flexibility in his contract with Joey Hernandez to withdraw from the fight in order to compete for the vacant WBO title? Did the WBO even notify him of this opportunity?

I guess we need to know more, because this article doesn’t address all the knowledge gaps of the situation.

I suspect that if Austin Trout emerges victorious from this lawsuit, the WBO would likely cease to exist (in its current form anyway).

One question though, has Austin Trout filed the lawsuit of his own accord or is this manoeuvre part of a bigger political picture, because he is an Al Haymon fighter?

Who stands to lose the most if the WBO ceases to exist? Would it be Top Rank, who recently signed a lucrative contract with ESPN?

Did Haymon agree to not compete with Top Rank for the ESPN contract in order to get Bob Arum to settle his Muhammad Ali Act lawsuit? Is the Trout-WBO lawsuit some form of retaliation?

There are far too many subplots here to assume that this lawsuit is simply driven by a disgruntled fighter.

[Boxing Prospect]

Case will probably be thrown out given that that Trout has subsequently had two world title fights, and has no real argument for loss of earnings and would likely have been removed when he agreed to fight for the IBF title...