Snips and Snipes 9 March 2023: Amateur Boxing Olympic Uncertainty; Sergio Martinez Continues Comeback Grind
By Eric Armit
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 10 Mar 2023
I guess you could say that professional boxing is fiddling whilst the most important source of future talent is burning to the ground. The Olympic Games and the World Championships are the two major events in amateur boxing (I use the word amateur even though it is not strictly accurate these days). The disgraceful way that the AIBA ran amateur boxing and the failure of the IBA (Amateur Boxing Association) to deal with the concerns of the International Olympic Committee) has led to chaos over the Paris Games.
The IBA has said it intends to run a qualification system for 2024 Games but the IOC has said that the only qualification system for the 2024 Games will be the one they run. That is a huge blow to boxing in all four corners of the World. Countries will provide funds for amateur boxing because of the high profile of the Games and the prestige a medal can bring to sport in their country which in turn will generate funding for the next Games. If money is tight countries will allocate the funds to other sports.
The IBA World Championships have a much lower prolific as far as Governments and the general public is concerned. The IOC ran boxing at the Tokyo Games and plans, as above, to do so for 2024 and a decision is pending on 2028 but the position is uncertain. The situation is only getting worse. The IOC are the only ones who can decide who will run boxing at the Olympic Games and the World Championship are run by the IBA.
The IBA has a Russian President who was re-elected in 2020 with another candidate from Holland being barred from running. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled the he should have been allowed to run but the IBA just ignored this and that is exactly the sort of behaviour that made the IOC decided to run the 2021 Games. The IBA is largely funded by the Russian energy giant Gazprom. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine nine countries are boycotting the Female World Championships including the USA, Ireland, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Holland others and it is highly possible that the same countries will boycott the Men’s Championships in Tashkent in May.
The IBA have now decided that they will award prize money for medals: Gold-$100,000, Silver-$50,000, Bronze $25,000 (amateur boxing! we need to find a new name) and will also finance non-participants such as referees and judges. IBA’s money largely comes from Gazprom so Russia is essentially financing the World Championships so politics is playing a large part in what is happening in “amateur” boxing.
Professional boxing needs fighters such as Olek Usyk, Anthony Joshua, Vasyl Lomachenko, Errol Spence, Shakur Stevenson etc. who were given such prominence by the Olympics. They were supported by their home bodies with an Olympic medal the ultimate aim. A fractured sport is a weaker sport so the IBA attitude is a huge concern for professional boxing but rather than change they are digging trenches and hiding behind Russian money.
Sergio Martinez, now 48, is continuing his comeback. The former WBC super welterweight and WBC/WBO middleweight champion faces Colombian Jhon Theran at the famous Luna Park in Buenos Aires on 21 March. After losing to Miguel Cotto in 2014, Martinez was out for six years and has scored five wins since returning. None of those six opponents have been rated so the WBA rating him No 2 is based on achievements almost nine years ago and on the strength of his more recent opposition Box Rec have him at No 52.
Still on Argentina later this month a TV series on the life former heavyweight contender Oscar Bonavena will premier in Argentina later this month. Bonavena was arguably the best heavyweight produced in Argentina. He lost to Jimmy Ellis in the semi-final of a WBA tournament after Muhammad Ali had been stripped of the title. He lost twice to Joe Frazier. The first time on a split decision over ten rounds and the second time for the New York State Athletic version of the heavyweight title in 1968 and was stopped in the fifteenth round of a non-title fight with Muhammad Ali in 1970. He fought at the highest level with wins over Karl Mildenberger, Zora Folley, Leotis Martin amongst other in a 58-9-1 (44) record. Whilst still boxing he acted in three films but his colourful life came to an end in May 1976 when he was shot and killed by a security guard at the famed Mustang Ranch bordello outside Reno. That should be an interesting series.
The hair holding the Sword of Damocles over the head of Felix Sturm seems to have finally snapped. The German newspaper Bild reported that the Cologne public prosecutor had confirmed that the former WBO, WBA and IBF middleweight and WBA super middleweight champion has been held in open custody since the end of February allegedly for tax evasion and violation of anti-drug laws. I reported back in 2019 that having lived abroad when he returned to Germany he had been arrested and put in custody for eight months. He was released after posting bail but has now been arrested again to serve time under the original charges.
Purse Offers are due on 16 March for Denys Berinchyk’s defence of the European lightweight title against veteran Emiliano Marsili. Berinchyk, 34, will be making the first defence of the title won in December with a points victory over Yvan Mendy in London. Italian Marsili, 46, a former European champion, is still unbeaten after almost 20 years as a pro with a 42-0-1 record. He relinquished the European title to seek a shot at a world title but it never materialised.
Dominican lightweight Michael Rivera suffered double trouble. Not only was he floored and outpointed by Frank Martin in December but also tested positive for banned diuretic. He was given a six month suspension and fined 15% of his purse.
Another former champion will soon be venturing onto the comeback trail. Nordine Ouballi announced his retirement after losing his WBC bantamweight title to Nonito Donaire in May 2021. Ouballi, 36, is aiming to return to action in April.
There is another unifier on the cards with Japan’s Kenshiro Teraji, who holds the WBA and WBC light flyweight titles, facing WBO title holder Jonathan Gonzalez on 8 April in Tokyo.
On the European front Matteo Signani will defend the middleweight title against Felix Cash in London on 11 April, Frenchman Dylan Bregeon and Michal Cieslak will contest the cruiserweight title relinquished by Chris Billam-Smith in Rzeszow Poland on 22 April, and Liam Davies puts his super bantam title on the line against Jason Cunningham on 29 April in Telford. It is good to see that Thomas Essomba will challenge Alessio Lorusso for the European bantamweight title in Monza on 20 May. Too often the Cameroons-born Essomba has taken short-notice fight or faced bigger guys but this time he will have plenty of time to get ready.
Mauricio Sulaiman is a positive person. He always aims to do good and looks across the spectrum and not just the WBC. Very early in his Presidency he tried to get a dialogue going with the other sanctioning bodies and the failure of the attempt was not down to him-but at least he tried and I am sure will continue to do so but lately I feel he has made some mistakes. His enthusiasm for embracing the publicity surrounding Jake Paul was a mistake as it led him to say that if Paul beat Tommy Fury, he would be eligible for a place in the WBC ratings. Since both Fury and Paul were mere novices who had not faced anyone in the top 200 and who were both placed in the 300’s by Box Rec he is now faced with giving Tommy Fury (Box Rec No 165) a spot in the WBC 40 effectively throwing any sensible criteria for rating a boxer in the trash can.
I don’t know where his remarks about Connor Benn’s positive test coming from a surfeit of eating eggs because Benn rubbish that suggestion himself. He has also toured the Middle East embracing countries whose record on female rights is atrocious which seems insensitive for an organisation so heavily involved in female boxing and with so many important posts filled by females. I was sincere when I said he always aims to do good but he should reflect on whether these recent examples show some errors of judgement or some poor advice.
There are many famous fight venues around the world some large and some small but I wonder if any venue can match the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Dome City. The Hall hosted boxing for the 1964 Olympic Games and the first professional boxing show held in the Hall was the September 1964 fight between Japanese bantamweight Katsuo Saito and Chicago’s Ronnie James. According to Box Rec the show there on 4 March this year was No 3,587 with 12 more scheduled up to 30 April. Prior to the Hall opening the Korakuen Gym hosted many of the greatest boxing matches held in Japan as well as other events.
About the Author
Born in Scotland, Eric Armit started working with Boxing News magazine in the UK in the late 1960’s initially doing records for their Boxing News Annual and compiling World, European and Commonwealth ratings for the magazine. He wrote his first feature article for Boxing News in 1973 and wrote a “World Scene” weekly column for the magazine from the late 1970’s until 2004. Armit wrote a monthly column for Boxing Digest in the USA and contributed pieces to magazines in Mexico, Italy, Australia, Spain, Argentina and other countries. Armit now writes a Weekly Report covering every major fight around the world and a bi-weekly Snips & Snipes column plus occasional general interest articles with these being taken up by boxing sites around the world. He was a member of the inaugural WBC Ratings Committee and a technical advisor to the EBU Ratings Committee and was consulted by John McCain’s research team when they were drafting the Ali Act. He is a Director and former Chairman of the Commonwealth Boxing Council. Armit has been nominated to the International Boxing Hall of Fame the past two years (2019 and 2020) to which he said, “Being on the list is an unbelievably huge honour.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eric Armit.
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