BoxRec

Ahead of the Martinez/Chavez fight tonight I just wanted to give a little recap of the strange relationship between the Chavez family and WBC President-for-life Jose Sulaiman, but in skimming through my yellowed old boxing rags just kept stumbling upon other stories that were too good to omit.

A lot of people must be wondering how on earth Chavez XXXL can be WBC champ when Martinez won the belt in the ring and is one of the sports p4p best. The material humbly presented to you here might give you an idea why Chavez had been made champion. It also gives you a brief overview of just a few contributions Jose Sulaiman has made to boxing. Enjoy.

A QUICK BACKGROUND:
The WBC was formed in the early 60s by promoter George Panasus to represent the many Mexican boxers who weren’t getting a fair treatment from the WBA (then known as the NBA). Sulaiman bagged the top job in 1975 and quickly made himself “President-for-life”.

SULAIMAN, BOXING, AND CHAVEZ:
Sulaiman decided immediate rematches were 'unethical' so, in 1978, broke up the undisputed heavyweight championship when he stripped Leon Spinks for fighting Muhammad Ali (in a Bob Arum promoted rematch). He awarded the WBC belt to Don King’s Ken Norton so he could defend it against Don King’s Larry Holmes. Sulaiman however did not strip Don King’s Roberto Duran in 1980 for fighting an immediate rematch with Leonard as this rematch was “for the good of boxing”… Sulaiman’s actions with Spinks and Ali sent the division into confusion and disarray until Tyson cleaned it up nearly a decade later.

Sulaiman was, in 1983, responsible for cutting championship fights from 15 rounds down to 12 rounds, citing the Duk Koo Kim fatality as the reason. Kim was in fact only the third fatality to happen in those final three rounds since the 1920s (Ernie Schaff in 33 and Jup Elze in 68), with all the other fatalities actually occurring within Sulaiman's new 12 rd limit. Many of boxing’s greatest, most shocking, exiting and dramatic occurances took place in those championship rounds of 13, 14 and 15, including: Ali/Frazier III! Marciano/Walcott! Holmes/Norton! Weaver/Tate! Louis/Conn! Leonard/Hearns! LaMotta/Dauthille! Robinson/LaMotta VI! Pryor/Arguello! and on and on. Thanks to Sulaiman, we've never seen what drama might have unfolded in those final three rounds ever since.

Sulaiman ‘erased’ a loss on Julio Cesar Chavez’s record – he had been disqualified against Miguel Ruiz in Mexico but Sulaiman altered the result to a KO1 to preserve the Mexican’s huge undefeated record – he also called Chavez ‘the greatest pound for pound boxer in the history of boxing’.

Sulaiman allowed Sugar Ray Leonard to simulatenously challenge for the newly created WBC super middle belt and opponent Donny LaLonde’s WBC light heavy belt, despite it being against the WBC’s own rules and neither man being ranked in their super middle top 10. He also allowed Julio Cesar Chavez to retain two division titles at the same time despite it being against WBC rules.

Sulaiman wanted to strip a promoter and everyone involved in an IBF title fight between Graciano Rocchigiani and Sugarboy Malinga as Malinga was a South African. He refused to rank Damiani for two years for fighting DuPlooy. They forbid Jake LaMotta from attending any WBC functions for being photographed shaking hands with South African Brian Mitchell, who had denounced Apartheid! And yet despite all this Sulaiman never took the same stance with promoter Don King, who had promoted Gerrie Coetzee and had even sent Greg Page over to Sun City to fight him.

In the late 80s Sulaiman created a whole load of new sanctioning fees when he invented the ‘international titles’ – and in the inaugural vacant WBC international featherweight title Miguel Francia fought as a lightweight! We have Sulaiman to thank for the current endless international belts. Thanks Jose!

Sulaiman immediately refused to recognise Buster Douglas as champion after his epic victory over Don King’s Mike Tyson, due to a contrived long count controversy – despite their own WBC Code of Ethics instructing “to regard the decisions of the referee and judges as final” – Sulaiman later backed down claiming it was a ‘mistake’ after worldwide media condemnation. He tried arrange an immediate rematch despite immediate rematches being against WBC rules and him taking a firm stance against them whenever the fighters involved were under Don King.

Sulaiman ordered WBC champ Bobby Chacon not to defend his title against number one ranked Cornelias Boza Edwards but instead against Don King’s number two contender Hector Camacho – and accept King’s offer of 150K or get stripped! Chacon instead fought CBE for 400k and the WBC opted to strip him – for fighting their own number one contender!

In 1990, two time world heavyweight champ and independently ranked number 4 heavyweight Tim Witherspoon had a $25 million lawsuit against Don King, Sulaiman ranked Spoon way down at a ridiculous 18 – even behind men Spoon had beaten!

Sulaiman made Don King’s Mike Tyson the number one contender the day after Duva fighter Holyfield KOd Douglas, and decreed he must make his first defence against Mike Tyson – despite the fact Holyfield had been the number one mandatory and was entitled under their rules a full year before he took on his mandatory. When Don King’s Tyson was champ he was allowed to keep Duva’s Holyfield waiting for way over the one year time frame.

Sulaiman also came close to breaking up the undisputed title for a second time, after Spinks/Ali, wanting to strip Holyfield so that two Don King fighters, this time Tyson and Ruddock, could contest a vacant WBC belt.

Sulaiman campaigned long and hard for Holyfield to be stripped of the WBC belt – he even insisted Holyfield must split the purse 55-45 with Tyson, despite the WBC rules calling for 75-25 champion-to-challenger purses. If Holyfield were to refuse this he would strip him of the belt.

When WBC champ Julian Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Don King over the blank contract he had signed, and began talking with Bob Arum, Sulaiman suddenly decided that Jackson’s retina problems were an issue and he should not be allowed to keep fighting. When Jackson backed down and returned to King, Sulaiman approved his next title defense without any requirement for another eye exam.

Sulaiman openly proclaimed Mike Tyson “innocent” of rape, months before he even began his trial for rape in January 1992. He was convicted. After the verdict, Sulaiman stated “women raped Tyson”. Sulaiman wanted to provide aide and financial support to Carlos Monzon, who at the time was in jail for brutally murdering his wife.

Sulaiman sanctioned a defense by Julio Cesar Chavez against Lonnie Smith, despite Smith being unranked by the WBC.

When Razor Ruddock didn’t pay his WBC sanctioning fee of $150K for his 10 round non-title fight with Greg Page, Sulaiman dropped him to number two. When Ruddock paid up, he was lifted back up to number one.

For the WBC Julio Cesar Chavez-Pelayito Hernandez fight in Mexico the ring size did not conform to the minimum size standards, a complaint that Chavez was using too much tape and gauze was ignored by the WBC, AND CHAVEZ FAILED TO TAKE THE POST-FIGHT URINE TEST…it was at least the second time complaints had been made about Chavez using too much tape and gauze.

Immediately after Riddick Bowe’s stirring victory over Holyfield, the WBC demanded the fiercely independent Rock Newman/Bowe axis must go straight in with their top contender Lennox Lewis – who had unexpectedly slayed Don King’s Razor Ruddock and whom Don King was trying to get under his wing – instead of enjoying the usual champion’s luxury of first making some voluntray defences. Bowe ditched his WBC belt, Sulaiman’s heavy handed finally breaking up the undisputed title Tyson had pieced together after Sulaiman had last botched it with Spinks & Ali in 78. Inevitably Lewis defended his WBC belt against a Don King fighter, Tony Tucker. Other WBC champs such as Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate were not subject to the same rules and went over a year without mandatory defences. Asked about this in BI in 1996, Sulaiman said “I am not sure because I don’t remember their cases right now”.

Sulaiman attempted to justify the WBC’s stripping of Bowe by pointing to his mismatch with Michael Dokes – ignoring the WBC/Don King mismatches he had sanctioned recently, including Julian Jackson against clubfighter Israel Negron and Chavez versus Haugen, John DuPlessis, Kyung Duk Ahn etc etc.

Sulaiman apparently was heard instructing officials they “were not to reward movement, but aggressiveness”. In the wake of judge Mickey Vann voluntarily deducting a point from Pernell Whitaker against Julio Cesar Chavez without instruction from the referee – thus singlehandedly making his card a draw and saving Chavez the loss, Sulaiman awarded Vann the Lewis/Bruno WBC gig.

When Frankie Randall clearly beat Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994, despite two points deductions from Chavez and a knockdown scored by Randall, he still only won by a point in a split decision. Had he not knocked Chavez down in the 11th, the WBC judges would have scored the fight a draw and Chavez would have retained his title! When Chavez was again losing the rematch, and turned his back again in the 8th saying twice he did not want to continue even though the ringside doctor Flip Homansky said he would have let him, Sulaiman, who personally collects the scorecards and knows who is ahead, decided the fight would not be an LTKO8 but instead go to the socrecards, where Chavez miraculously won on points and regained his title. Ringside reporters had Randall well ahead.

In 1995, Mike Tyson became the number one WBC contender despite having not won a fight in four years. Oliver McCall was the WBC champ, and Don King stiffs Frans Botha and Peter McNeeley suddenly appeared in the top 10 despite never having beaten a ranked contender. Lennox Lewis fought and defeated Don King’s Lionel Butler in a WBC final eliminator, but Sulaiman still kept the inactive Tyson at number one. Riddick Bowe, widely considered the best heavyweight in the world, was unranked by the WBC. The independent world rankings had Bowe at 1, Lewis at 3 and Tyson nowehere in the top 25, do to his complete inactivity.

....Well, I gave up after 1996 because I have other stuff to do. Anyone else feel free to contribute. These are the dark forces that Sergio Martinez is up against tonight. We might have to set up our Bullshit Deflectors to '10' for this one tonight.

I hope Martinez gives Chavez a pasting, I don't like him at all.

Matt W wrote:I hope Martinez gives Chavez a pasting, I don't like him at all.

Why ?
I think his good to watch !

Interesting read. This is why I'm not opposed to having 4 main titles.

Dont forget Chavez snr was ranked 20th at Welter, getting his ass whooped by journeyman...

... suddenly he gets put in at 140lb as the #1 contender to Kostya Tszyu !

Bronxbull666 wrote:Interesting read. This is why I'm not opposed to having 4 main titles.

The problem is I could do a write up on the WBA, IBF and WBO every bit as bad. They all really are horrifyingly corrupt.

loaded_gloves wrote:

Bronxbull666 wrote:Interesting read. This is why I'm not opposed to having 4 main titles.

The problem is I could do a write up on the WBA, IBF and WBO every bit as bad. They all really are horrifyingly corrupt.

I'd like to read any write up on those 3, or just a list of facts. Who is least corrupt in your opinion? What's your take on the IBO?

jessi wrote:

Matt W wrote:I hope Martinez gives Chavez a pasting, I don't like him at all.

Why ?
I think his good to watch !

Cheat, drink driver, and protected fighter until tonight when he will get an arse kicking.

Interesting, Don Jose is a very noble man not afraid to take chances and do the right thing.

loaded_gloves wrote:Ahead of the Martinez/Chavez fight tonight I just wanted to give a little recap of the strange relationship between the Chavez family and WBC President-for-life Jose Sulaiman, but in skimming through my yellowed old boxing rags just kept stumbling upon other stories that were too good to omit.

A lot of people must be wondering how on earth Chavez XXXL can be WBC champ when Martinez won the belt in the ring and is one of the sports p4p best. The material humbly presented to you here might give you an idea why Chavez had been made champion. It also gives you a brief overview of just a few contributions Jose Sulaiman has made to boxing. Enjoy.

A QUICK BACKGROUND:
The WBC was formed in the early 60s by promoter George Panasus to represent the many Mexican boxers who weren’t getting a fair treatment from the WBA (then known as the NBA). Sulaiman bagged the top job in 1975 and quickly made himself “President-for-life”.

SULAIMAN, BOXING, AND CHAVEZ:
Sulaiman decided immediate rematches were 'unethical' so, in 1978, broke up the undisputed heavyweight championship when he stripped Leon Spinks for fighting Muhammad Ali (in a Bob Arum promoted rematch). He awarded the WBC belt to Don King’s Ken Norton so he could defend it against Don King’s Larry Holmes. Sulaiman however did not strip Don King’s Roberto Duran in 1980 for fighting an immediate rematch with Leonard as this rematch was “for the good of boxing”… Sulaiman’s actions with Spinks and Ali sent the division into confusion and disarray until Tyson cleaned it up nearly a decade later.

Sulaiman was, in 1983, responsible for cutting championship fights from 15 rounds down to 12 rounds, citing the Duk Koo Kim fatality as the reason. Kim was in fact only the third fatality to happen in those final three rounds since the 1920s (Ernie Schaff in 33 and Jup Elze in 68), with all the other fatalities actually occurring within Sulaiman's new 12 rd limit. Many of boxing’s greatest, most shocking, exiting and dramatic occurances took place in those championship rounds of 13, 14 and 15, including: Ali/Frazier III! Marciano/Walcott! Holmes/Norton! Weaver/Tate! Louis/Conn! Leonard/Hearns! LaMotta/Dauthille! Robinson/LaMotta VI! Pryor/Arguello! and on and on. Thanks to Sulaiman, we've never seen what drama might have unfolded in those final three rounds ever since.

Sulaiman ‘erased’ a loss on Julio Cesar Chavez’s record – he had been disqualified against Miguel Ruiz in Mexico but Sulaiman altered the result to a KO1 to preserve the Mexican’s huge undefeated record – he also called Chavez ‘the greatest pound for pound boxer in the history of boxing’.

Sulaiman allowed Sugar Ray Leonard to simulatenously challenge for the newly created WBC super middle belt and opponent Donny LaLonde’s WBC light heavy belt, despite it being against the WBC’s own rules and neither man being ranked in their super middle top 10. He also allowed Julio Cesar Chavez to retain two division titles at the same time despite it being against WBC rules.

Sulaiman wanted to strip a promoter and everyone involved in an IBF title fight between Graciano Rocchigiani and Sugarboy Malinga as Malinga was a South African. He refused to rank Damiani for two years for fighting DuPlooy. They forbid Jake LaMotta from attending any WBC functions for being photographed shaking hands with South African Brian Mitchell, who had denounced Apartheid! And yet despite all this Sulaiman never took the same stance with promoter Don King, who had promoted Gerrie Coetzee and had even sent Greg Page over to Sun City to fight him.

In the late 80s Sulaiman created a whole load of new sanctioning fees when he invented the ‘international titles’ – and in the inaugural vacant WBC international featherweight title Miguel Francia fought as a lightweight! We have Sulaiman to thank for the current endless international belts. Thanks Jose!

Sulaiman immediately refused to recognise Buster Douglas as champion after his epic victory over Don King’s Mike Tyson, due to a contrived long count controversy – despite their own WBC Code of Ethics instructing “to regard the decisions of the referee and judges as final” – Sulaiman later backed down claiming it was a ‘mistake’ after worldwide media condemnation. He tried arrange an immediate rematch despite immediate rematches being against WBC rules and him taking a firm stance against them whenever the fighters involved were under Don King.

Sulaiman ordered WBC champ Bobby Chacon not to defend his title against number one ranked Cornelias Boza Edwards but instead against Don King’s number two contender Hector Camacho – and accept King’s offer of 150K or get stripped! Chacon instead fought CBE for 400k and the WBC opted to strip him – for fighting their own number one contender!

In 1990, two time world heavyweight champ and independently ranked number 4 heavyweight Tim Witherspoon had a $25 million lawsuit against Don King, Sulaiman ranked Spoon way down at a ridiculous 18 – even behind men Spoon had beaten!

Sulaiman made Don King’s Mike Tyson the number one contender the day after Duva fighter Holyfield KOd Douglas, and decreed he must make his first defence against Mike Tyson – despite the fact Holyfield had been the number one mandatory and was entitled under their rules a full year before he took on his mandatory. When Don King’s Tyson was champ he was allowed to keep Duva’s Holyfield waiting for way over the one year time frame.

Sulaiman also came close to breaking up the undisputed title for a second time, after Spinks/Ali, wanting to strip Holyfield so that two Don King fighters, this time Tyson and Ruddock, could contest a vacant WBC belt.

Sulaiman campaigned long and hard for Holyfield to be stripped of the WBC belt – he even insisted Holyfield must split the purse 55-45 with Tyson, despite the WBC rules calling for 75-25 champion-to-challenger purses. If Holyfield were to refuse this he would strip him of the belt.

When WBC champ Julian Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Don King over the blank contract he had signed, and began talking with Bob Arum, Sulaiman suddenly decided that Jackson’s retina problems were an issue and he should not be allowed to keep fighting. When Jackson backed down and returned to King, Sulaiman approved his next title defense without any requirement for another eye exam.

Sulaiman openly proclaimed Mike Tyson “innocent” of rape, months before he even began his trial for rape in January 1992. He was convicted. After the verdict, Sulaiman stated “women raped Tyson”. Sulaiman wanted to provide aide and financial support to Carlos Monzon, who at the time was in jail for brutally murdering his wife.

Sulaiman sanctioned a defense by Julio Cesar Chavez against Lonnie Smith, despite Smith being unranked by the WBC.

When Razor Ruddock didn’t pay his WBC sanctioning fee of $150K for his 10 round non-title fight with Greg Page, Sulaiman dropped him to number two. When Ruddock paid up, he was lifted back up to number one.

For the WBC Julio Cesar Chavez-Pelayito Hernandez fight in Mexico the ring size did not conform to the minimum size standards, a complaint that Chavez was using too much tape and gauze was ignored by the WBC, AND CHAVEZ FAILED TO TAKE THE POST-FIGHT URINE TEST…it was at least the second time complaints had been made about Chavez using too much tape and gauze.

Immediately after Riddick Bowe’s stirring victory over Holyfield, the WBC demanded the fiercely independent Rock Newman/Bowe axis must go straight in with their top contender Lennox Lewis – who had unexpectedly slayed Don King’s Razor Ruddock and whom Don King was trying to get under his wing – instead of enjoying the usual champion’s luxury of first making some voluntray defences. Bowe ditched his WBC belt, Sulaiman’s heavy handed finally breaking up the undisputed title Tyson had pieced together after Sulaiman had last botched it with Spinks & Ali in 78. Inevitably Lewis defended his WBC belt against a Don King fighter, Tony Tucker. Other WBC champs such as Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate were not subject to the same rules and went over a year without mandatory defences. Asked about this in BI in 1996, Sulaiman said “I am not sure because I don’t remember their cases right now”.

Sulaiman attempted to justify the WBC’s stripping of Bowe by pointing to his mismatch with Michael Dokes – ignoring the WBC/Don King mismatches he had sanctioned recently, including Julian Jackson against clubfighter Israel Negron and Chavez versus Haugen, John DuPlessis, Kyung Duk Ahn etc etc.

Sulaiman apparently was heard instructing officials they “were not to reward movement, but aggressiveness”. In the wake of judge Mickey Vann voluntarily deducting a point from Pernell Whitaker against Julio Cesar Chavez without instruction from the referee – thus singlehandedly making his card a draw and saving Chavez the loss, Sulaiman awarded Vann the Lewis/Bruno WBC gig.

When Frankie Randall clearly beat Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994, despite two points deductions from Chavez and a knockdown scored by Randall, he still only won by a point in a split decision. Had he not knocked Chavez down in the 11th, the WBC judges would have scored the fight a draw and Chavez would have retained his title! When Chavez was again losing the rematch, and turned his back again in the 8th saying twice he did not want to continue even though the ringside doctor Flip Homansky said he would have let him, Sulaiman, who personally collects the scorecards and knows who is ahead, decided the fight would not be an LTKO8 but instead go to the socrecards, where Chavez miraculously won on points and regained his title. Ringside reporters had Randall well ahead.

In 1995, Mike Tyson became the number one WBC contender despite having not won a fight in four years. Oliver McCall was the WBC champ, and Don King stiffs Frans Botha and Peter McNeeley suddenly appeared in the top 10 despite never having beaten a ranked contender. Lennox Lewis fought and defeated Don King’s Lionel Butler in a WBC final eliminator, but Sulaiman still kept the inactive Tyson at number one. Riddick Bowe, widely considered the best heavyweight in the world, was unranked by the WBC. The independent world rankings had Bowe at 1, Lewis at 3 and Tyson nowehere in the top 25, do to his complete inactivity.

....Well, I gave up after 1996 because I have other stuff to do. Anyone else feel free to contribute. These are the dark forces that Sergio Martinez is up against tonight. We might have to set up our Bullshit Deflectors to '10' for this one tonight.

There were some very bad beatings dished out in the rounds 13, 14 and 15; boxing will never be totaly safe but the cut was for the best and the other ABC organisations could have held firm for 15 rounds.

loaded_gloves wrote:Ahead of the Martinez/Chavez fight tonight I just wanted to give a little recap of the strange relationship between the Chavez family and WBC President-for-life Jose Sulaiman, but in skimming through my yellowed old boxing rags just kept stumbling upon other stories that were too good to omit.

A lot of people must be wondering how on earth Chavez XXXL can be WBC champ when Martinez won the belt in the ring and is one of the sports p4p best. The material humbly presented to you here might give you an idea why Chavez had been made champion. It also gives you a brief overview of just a few contributions Jose Sulaiman has made to boxing. Enjoy.

A QUICK BACKGROUND:
The WBC was formed in the early 60s by promoter George Panasus to represent the many Mexican boxers who weren’t getting a fair treatment from the WBA (then known as the NBA). Sulaiman bagged the top job in 1975 and quickly made himself “President-for-life”.

SULAIMAN, BOXING, AND CHAVEZ:
Sulaiman decided immediate rematches were 'unethical' so, in 1978, broke up the undisputed heavyweight championship when he stripped Leon Spinks for fighting Muhammad Ali (in a Bob Arum promoted rematch). He awarded the WBC belt to Don King’s Ken Norton so he could defend it against Don King’s Larry Holmes. Sulaiman however did not strip Don King’s Roberto Duran in 1980 for fighting an immediate rematch with Leonard as this rematch was “for the good of boxing”… Sulaiman’s actions with Spinks and Ali sent the division into confusion and disarray until Tyson cleaned it up nearly a decade later.

Sulaiman was, in 1983, responsible for cutting championship fights from 15 rounds down to 12 rounds, citing the Duk Koo Kim fatality as the reason. Kim was in fact only the third fatality to happen in those final three rounds since the 1920s (Ernie Schaff in 33 and Jup Elze in 68), with all the other fatalities actually occurring within Sulaiman's new 12 rd limit. Many of boxing’s greatest, most shocking, exiting and dramatic occurances took place in those championship rounds of 13, 14 and 15, including: Ali/Frazier III! Marciano/Walcott! Holmes/Norton! Weaver/Tate! Louis/Conn! Leonard/Hearns! LaMotta/Dauthille! Robinson/LaMotta VI! Pryor/Arguello! and on and on. Thanks to Sulaiman, we've never seen what drama might have unfolded in those final three rounds ever since.

Sulaiman ‘erased’ a loss on Julio Cesar Chavez’s record – he had been disqualified against Miguel Ruiz in Mexico but Sulaiman altered the result to a KO1 to preserve the Mexican’s huge undefeated record – he also called Chavez ‘the greatest pound for pound boxer in the history of boxing’.

Sulaiman allowed Sugar Ray Leonard to simulatenously challenge for the newly created WBC super middle belt and opponent Donny LaLonde’s WBC light heavy belt, despite it being against the WBC’s own rules and neither man being ranked in their super middle top 10. He also allowed Julio Cesar Chavez to retain two division titles at the same time despite it being against WBC rules.

Sulaiman wanted to strip a promoter and everyone involved in an IBF title fight between Graciano Rocchigiani and Sugarboy Malinga as Malinga was a South African. He refused to rank Damiani for two years for fighting DuPlooy. They forbid Jake LaMotta from attending any WBC functions for being photographed shaking hands with South African Brian Mitchell, who had denounced Apartheid! And yet despite all this Sulaiman never took the same stance with promoter Don King, who had promoted Gerrie Coetzee and had even sent Greg Page over to Sun City to fight him.

In the late 80s Sulaiman created a whole load of new sanctioning fees when he invented the ‘international titles’ – and in the inaugural vacant WBC international featherweight title Miguel Francia fought as a lightweight! We have Sulaiman to thank for the current endless international belts. Thanks Jose!

Sulaiman immediately refused to recognise Buster Douglas as champion after his epic victory over Don King’s Mike Tyson, due to a contrived long count controversy – despite their own WBC Code of Ethics instructing “to regard the decisions of the referee and judges as final” – Sulaiman later backed down claiming it was a ‘mistake’ after worldwide media condemnation. He tried arrange an immediate rematch despite immediate rematches being against WBC rules and him taking a firm stance against them whenever the fighters involved were under Don King.

Sulaiman ordered WBC champ Bobby Chacon not to defend his title against number one ranked Cornelias Boza Edwards but instead against Don King’s number two contender Hector Camacho – and accept King’s offer of 150K or get stripped! Chacon instead fought CBE for 400k and the WBC opted to strip him – for fighting their own number one contender!

In 1990, two time world heavyweight champ and independently ranked number 4 heavyweight Tim Witherspoon had a $25 million lawsuit against Don King, Sulaiman ranked Spoon way down at a ridiculous 18 – even behind men Spoon had beaten!

Sulaiman made Don King’s Mike Tyson the number one contender the day after Duva fighter Holyfield KOd Douglas, and decreed he must make his first defence against Mike Tyson – despite the fact Holyfield had been the number one mandatory and was entitled under their rules a full year before he took on his mandatory. When Don King’s Tyson was champ he was allowed to keep Duva’s Holyfield waiting for way over the one year time frame.

Sulaiman also came close to breaking up the undisputed title for a second time, after Spinks/Ali, wanting to strip Holyfield so that two Don King fighters, this time Tyson and Ruddock, could contest a vacant WBC belt.

Sulaiman campaigned long and hard for Holyfield to be stripped of the WBC belt – he even insisted Holyfield must split the purse 55-45 with Tyson, despite the WBC rules calling for 75-25 champion-to-challenger purses. If Holyfield were to refuse this he would strip him of the belt.

When WBC champ Julian Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Don King over the blank contract he had signed, and began talking with Bob Arum, Sulaiman suddenly decided that Jackson’s retina problems were an issue and he should not be allowed to keep fighting. When Jackson backed down and returned to King, Sulaiman approved his next title defense without any requirement for another eye exam.

Sulaiman openly proclaimed Mike Tyson “innocent” of rape, months before he even began his trial for rape in January 1992. He was convicted. After the verdict, Sulaiman stated “women raped Tyson”. Sulaiman wanted to provide aide and financial support to Carlos Monzon, who at the time was in jail for brutally murdering his wife.

Sulaiman sanctioned a defense by Julio Cesar Chavez against Lonnie Smith, despite Smith being unranked by the WBC.

When Razor Ruddock didn’t pay his WBC sanctioning fee of $150K for his 10 round non-title fight with Greg Page, Sulaiman dropped him to number two. When Ruddock paid up, he was lifted back up to number one.

For the WBC Julio Cesar Chavez-Pelayito Hernandez fight in Mexico the ring size did not conform to the minimum size standards, a complaint that Chavez was using too much tape and gauze was ignored by the WBC, AND CHAVEZ FAILED TO TAKE THE POST-FIGHT URINE TEST…it was at least the second time complaints had been made about Chavez using too much tape and gauze.

Immediately after Riddick Bowe’s stirring victory over Holyfield, the WBC demanded the fiercely independent Rock Newman/Bowe axis must go straight in with their top contender Lennox Lewis – who had unexpectedly slayed Don King’s Razor Ruddock and whom Don King was trying to get under his wing – instead of enjoying the usual champion’s luxury of first making some voluntray defences. Bowe ditched his WBC belt, Sulaiman’s heavy handed finally breaking up the undisputed title Tyson had pieced together after Sulaiman had last botched it with Spinks & Ali in 78. Inevitably Lewis defended his WBC belt against a Don King fighter, Tony Tucker. Other WBC champs such as Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate were not subject to the same rules and went over a year without mandatory defences. Asked about this in BI in 1996, Sulaiman said “I am not sure because I don’t remember their cases right now”.

Sulaiman attempted to justify the WBC’s stripping of Bowe by pointing to his mismatch with Michael Dokes – ignoring the WBC/Don King mismatches he had sanctioned recently, including Julian Jackson against clubfighter Israel Negron and Chavez versus Haugen, John DuPlessis, Kyung Duk Ahn etc etc.

Sulaiman apparently was heard instructing officials they “were not to reward movement, but aggressiveness”. In the wake of judge Mickey Vann voluntarily deducting a point from Pernell Whitaker against Julio Cesar Chavez without instruction from the referee – thus singlehandedly making his card a draw and saving Chavez the loss, Sulaiman awarded Vann the Lewis/Bruno WBC gig.

When Frankie Randall clearly beat Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994, despite two points deductions from Chavez and a knockdown scored by Randall, he still only won by a point in a split decision. Had he not knocked Chavez down in the 11th, the WBC judges would have scored the fight a draw and Chavez would have retained his title! When Chavez was again losing the rematch, and turned his back again in the 8th saying twice he did not want to continue even though the ringside doctor Flip Homansky said he would have let him, Sulaiman, who personally collects the scorecards and knows who is ahead, decided the fight would not be an LTKO8 but instead go to the socrecards, where Chavez miraculously won on points and regained his title. Ringside reporters had Randall well ahead.

In 1995, Mike Tyson became the number one WBC contender despite having not won a fight in four years. Oliver McCall was the WBC champ, and Don King stiffs Frans Botha and Peter McNeeley suddenly appeared in the top 10 despite never having beaten a ranked contender. Lennox Lewis fought and defeated Don King’s Lionel Butler in a WBC final eliminator, but Sulaiman still kept the inactive Tyson at number one. Riddick Bowe, widely considered the best heavyweight in the world, was unranked by the WBC. The independent world rankings had Bowe at 1, Lewis at 3 and Tyson nowehere in the top 25, do to his complete inactivity.

....Well, I gave up after 1996 because I have other stuff to do. Anyone else feel free to contribute. These are the dark forces that Sergio Martinez is up against tonight. We might have to set up our Bullshit Deflectors to '10' for this one tonight.

There were some very bad beatings dished out in the rounds 13, 14 and 15; boxing will never be totaly safe but the cut was for the best and the other ABC organisations could have held firm for 15 rounds.

Care to list them Palooka?

Terrible beatings have occurred within 10 rds - see Benn/McClellan. Boxing is an extremely dangerous sport over any distance, especially when at least one world championship calibre fighter is involved.

loaded_gloves wrote:Care to list them Palooka?

Terrible beatings have occurred within 10 rds - see Benn/McClellan. Boxing is an extremely dangerous sport over any distance, especially when at least one world championship calibre fighter is involved.

Then it wouldn't matter if there were 20 rounds? I could go through some of the old boxing books for examples but can remember that in the 'Championship Rounds' the stronger and 'harder' boxer generally made big inroads into the more skilled boxer.

I don't think anyone can deny that the more rounds you are taking shots, the more chance you have of getting seriously injured. There is now a 20% less chance of this happening. There is however an argument that because fighters now don't do as many rounds, they are not as well conditioned as those of the 15 round era.

Wow! Sergio better not leave this to the judges

Bronxbull666 wrote:

loaded_gloves wrote:

Bronxbull666 wrote:Interesting read. This is why I'm not opposed to having 4 main titles.

The problem is I could do a write up on the WBA, IBF and WBO every bit as bad. They all really are horrifyingly corrupt.

I'd like to read any write up on those 3, or just a list of facts. Who is least corrupt in your opinion? What's your take on the IBO?

Choosing between the three major bodies, or four if you prefer, is like trying to choose your favourite plane crash. They really are all equally disturbing.

The IBO were after I closely followed the sport, I'm aware they have managed to attach their belts to recognised number one fighters over the last decade but I also remember before that they had Brian Nielsen as their heavyweight champ and Fabio Moli as one of their top contenders. I don't think they're the antidote. The only thing that could save boxing would be an eccentric Mark Zuckerberg style zillionaire buying out all the bodies, wiping them all out and starting from scratch with one title per division.

loaded_gloves wrote: The only thing that could save boxing would be an eccentric Mark Zuckerberg style zillionaire buying out all the bodies, wiping them all out and starting from scratch with one title per division.

I wish the idea would work on paper but if this happened, thick people wouldn't be able to be duped into attending 'world title fights' and fringe fights would get even less interest.

It really opens your eyes to how dead boxing is when someone said when you scroll the top 10 heavyweights on Boxrec EVERYONE has a paper title.

I know the IBO lacks credibility, but their computerised ranking system and the fact they don't discriminate against other bodies by being prepared to let champions fight for other titles, makes them credible IMO. They just need to get a few top fighters who are prepared to declare themselves World champs by wearing the IBO strap.

Bronxbull666 wrote: I'd like to read any write up on those 3, or just a list of facts. Who is least corrupt in your opinion? What's your take on the IBO?

Hmm. IBF got wire-tapped by the FBI (ha, only just noticed that!). They took huge bribes, from er... Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, Don King & other upstanding members of the boxing community. It is claimed that they solicited the money for rankings, title shots, & general shady manipulation.

The WBA are, of course, the WBA. Do the words "super champion" mean anything to you? Also, they were the IBF of the early 80s: more huge bribes.

The WBO once ranked someone who was dead (honest, I know what it sounds like but really), & they do really bizarre things at times (d'you remember the way they kept giving MAB back the super-bantam title any time he asked for it? & a couple of times I think even when he didn't want it any more. Even when he was fighting at lightweight I expected to see that the WBO had reinstated him as super-bantam champion). Their challengers tend to be hilariously soft at times (the ones that are breathing, that is).

Datsue wrote:

Bronxbull666 wrote: I'd like to read any write up on those 3, or just a list of facts. Who is least corrupt in your opinion? What's your take on the IBO?

Hmm. IBF got wire-tapped by the FBI (ha, only just noticed that!). They took huge bribes, from er... Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, Don King & other upstanding members of the boxing community. It is claimed that they solicited the money for rankings, title shots, & general shady manipulation.

The WBA are, of course, the WBA. Do the words "super champion" mean anything to you? Also, they were the IBF of the early 80s: more huge bribes.

The WBO once ranked someone who was dead (honest, I know what it sounds like but really), & they do really bizarre things at times (d'you remember the way they kept giving MAB back the super-bantam title any time he asked for it? & a couple of times I think even when he didn't want it any more. Even when he was fighting at lightweight I expected to see that the WBO had reinstated him as super-bantam champion). Their challengers tend to be hilariously soft at times (the ones that are breathing, that is).

Nice work, who was the dead guy? It is quite funny when the corruption unravels, I like these dodgy stories.

loaded_gloves - you forgot to mention Sulaiman actually served a suspension for taking bribes from Don King I think it was. While he was suspended his son was put in charge.

Bronxbull666 wrote:

Datsue wrote:

Bronxbull666 wrote: I'd like to read any write up on those 3, or just a list of facts. Who is least corrupt in your opinion? What's your take on the IBO?

Hmm. IBF got wire-tapped by the FBI (ha, only just noticed that!). They took huge bribes, from er... Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, Don King & other upstanding members of the boxing community. It is claimed that they solicited the money for rankings, title shots, & general shady manipulation.

The WBA are, of course, the WBA. Do the words "super champion" mean anything to you? Also, they were the IBF of the early 80s: more huge bribes.

The WBO once ranked someone who was dead (honest, I know what it sounds like but really), & they do really bizarre things at times (d'you remember the way they kept giving MAB back the super-bantam title any time he asked for it? & a couple of times I think even when he didn't want it any more. Even when he was fighting at lightweight I expected to see that the WBO had reinstated him as super-bantam champion). Their challengers tend to be hilariously soft at times (the ones that are breathing, that is).

Nice work, who was the dead guy? It is quite funny when the corruption unravels, I like these dodgy stories.

Russian cruiserweight, from memory. Was it Sergei Koboverev (sp) or something like that?

Vaudeville Villain wrote:15-round fights aren’t automatically more dangerous than fights over the shorter distance. Anyone who has watched a lot of 15 rounders can see that the pace is a bit slower than modern, shorter fights. By cutting the distances down, and due to greater athleticism/fitness/training and conditioning techniques, you have fighters throwing more and more punches over a shorter distance. If a guy threw, say, 1000 shots over 15 then if he throws 1000 over 12 you still get the same amount of shots, but you could get hit more often per round. The longer distance was great for pacing a fight and intelligent fighters tended to thrive over this distance.

I’m not saying longer distances are perfect, but the 12-round limit was a kneejerk reaction and, like most safety standards brought about by external pressure, hasn’t made much of an impact, especially once people became fitter.

The safety improvements in boxing have resulted in guys 1-2 divisions bigger than their division who rehydrate up to a stone in weight after weighing in and who throw more punches per round over the course of the fight. This isn’t much of an improvement. Plus we also have frequent mismatches in which a guy is at a lower level to his opponent in terms of skill and is also far smaller. Sure, the bigger fighter is going to have an advantage over the last 3, but he has this advantage throughout and it can tell earlier, as was the case with Castillo-Coralles 2 in which the bigger man banjaxed the weaker man early in the fight and didn’t need the late-rounds strength to come through.

No matter what you do to make the sport safer and even, people will find ways to get around this and there’s always going to be mismatches between guys who are massive and hold all the ace cards and other guys who are the equivalent of room meat and are there to be devoured. People inside and outside the trade pay lip service to making boxing safer, but in many cases the steps needed to make it safe will level the playing field and fighters, trainers and promoters don’t really want this as they believe in gaining a competitive edge.

It is a hypocritical sport, if a fighter gets caught loading the gloves then he is vilified for bringing the sport into disrepute etc., but we’re pretty much OK with mismatches featuring guys weighing 12-14lbs more than their opponent as it is well within what is deemed acceptable. That is why we get scenarios like we the one we saw on Saturday in which one guy fighting at a weight that is natural(ish) to him and is far more talented comes within a whisker or losing to a guy a clear 2 divisions bigger who almost won a major fight by virtue of being huge and managing to stay on his feet. Martinez’s win was a victory for boxing itself yet there’s a lot of guys who, like Chavez, becoming top dogs simply because they are big, can hold a shot, which isn’t much of a surprise given how big they are, and know how to walk forward very slowly in a straight line.

Everything. Yes.

An interesting rebuttabal to the WBC hagiography of El Presidente.