BoxRec

Suspect there is a nervous promoter in France. On 20 May, Youri Kalenga faces Dorticos (unbeaten Cuban) in Versailles for the hopefully-then-vacant WBA cruiser title.

At the moment, title is owned by Denis Lebedev. On 14 May, on the undercard of Povetkin v Wilder, Lebedev is fighting Ramirez (IBF champ) in a unification on the undercard. As it is a unification, the winner gets the WBA Super title (as well as the IBF title), but neither of them are the WBA Super champion yet. But if it ends up a draw (not impossible - early accidental head clash, for example), Lebedev would end up back with the WBA ordinary title. At that point, what are Kalenga and Dorticos fighting for 6 days later? Beibut Shumenov holds the WBA interim cruiserweight title, so how can it be that. Unless they just copy it with a 3D printer and churn out another...

So hardly a great situation for the promoter in France, or Kalenga and Dorticos. I know none of this comes as any great surprise, but it does seem daft.

PS - just to make this relevant to British and Irish, I see Bob Ajisafe is fighting an unbeaten fighter for an IBO world title on the Povetkin-Wilder show. Does anyone know if this has been planned for a while or if it is a short-notice job? Either way, I wish him the best with it and hope he is getting a good purse.

First heard about the Ajisafe fight about 3-4 weeks ago so not too short of notice but not ideal.

Wouldn't be the first time the WBA tried to have a super champion, regular champion and 2 interim champions.

I didn't think it was possible but I think all the governing bodies are actually getting worse!

olij999 wrote:Suspect there is a nervous promoter in France. On 20 May, Youri Kalenga faces Dorticos (unbeaten Cuban) in Versailles for the hopefully-then-vacant WBA cruiser title.

At the moment, title is owned by Denis Lebedev. On 14 May, on the undercard of Povetkin v Wilder, Lebedev is fighting Ramirez (IBF champ) in a unification on the undercard. As it is a unification, the winner gets the WBA Super title (as well as the IBF title), but neither of them are the WBA Super champion yet. But if it ends up a draw (not impossible - early accidental head clash, for example), Lebedev would end up back with the WBA ordinary title. At that point, what are Kalenga and Dorticos fighting for 6 days later? Beibut Shumenov holds the WBA interim cruiserweight title, so how can it be that. Unless they just copy it with a 3D printer and churn out another...

So hardly a great situation for the promoter in France, or Kalenga and Dorticos. I know none of this comes as any great surprise, but it does seem daft.

PS - just to make this relevant to British and Irish, I see Bob Ajisafe is fighting an unbeaten fighter for an IBO world title on the Povetkin-Wilder show. Does anyone know if this has been planned for a while or if it is a short-notice job? Either way, I wish him the best with it and hope he is getting a good purse.

Its a WBA scam that along with incompetent/cheating judge's WILL DESTROY THE SPORT IN THE LONG RUN.

PredatorHayds wrote:First heard about the Ajisafe fight about 3-4 weeks ago so not too short of notice but not ideal.

Thanks - interesting - hope he is in good shape. Would be a great result if he could pull it off.