WAS NICHOLAS WALTERS ?MISSING WEIGHT? A SCHEME TO HAVE AN ADVANTAGE?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 14 Jun 2015
I have said it many times before - in my humble opinion, a fighter who after several weeks of training misses his contracted weight for his fight is unprofessional, and his actions are an insult to the sport, to his opponent, to the promotions and most especially to the fans.
No amount of ?I am so sorry? will cut it. The boxer is fully responsible and his team, the trainer in particular shares the blame. It is right to strip him of his belt, if he is the champion defending it. But I do not agree with simply taking away 20% of the purse. It should be more like 50% so that it will wake up all others who take ?weights? nonchalantly and in some cases deliberately ignore it to have an advantage. Read: Mayweather vs. JMMarquez.
Yesterday, Nicolas Walters missed his weight. He was given 2 hours or so to lose the excess. The authorities took his belt away and even if he wins against Miguel Marriaga (20-0-0,18KO) tonight at the MSG in New York, he can?t win the title. Marriaga on the other hand can win the title (WBA super featherweight title) if he wins.
When I saw Walters against Nonito Donaire, it looks to me that he is a natural junior welter or even a legitimate welterweight. The guy is just huge for the weight classes he fights on:- 126-130 lbs. Most folks that get tagged by Donaire?s famous left hook are knocked down. But Walters being naturally bigger only got rattled. Any other smaller fighter would have gone down with Donaire?s left hook.
In my opinion, Walters did not focus much on the weight limits because he wants to come in the fight much bigger than Marriaga so that he can have an advantage and assure a win.
With that he can avenge his painful loss to Marriaga in the amateurs that made him miss an opportunity of a life time- the Olympics. He was beaten by Marriaga in their amateur days and that loss contributed to Walters missing the Olympics in China.
An overweight Walters may well beat Marriaga tonight at the MSG. But any victory he may achieve is a hollow one. Sad to say however, the weight issue will not be reflected on his records, in the ?BoxRec? for instance but it is still the main reason why the victory will be achieved. It may not be ?clean? but in boxing, a win is a win no matter how it came about.
That is why some fighters ignore the contracted weight. Never mind the title and the 20% loss in the purse! Those don?t show in the fighter?s win-loss record!
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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