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IBF not alone in dubious rankings
The mouths of Andrew Golota and Michael Grant should salivate like Pavlov's dogs when the bell rings to signal the start of their heavyweight battle set for Saturday night.
If life were fair, and void of political influence, the winner of the bout would be propelled into a title fight with recently crowned unified heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. It's an opportunity of a lifetime that may instead fall into the hands of some inexplicably number-one ranked misfit.
Boxing remains plagued by inconsistencies and scandal and Lewis' next opponent may be the poster boy for all that's wrong with the sport. It's not difficult to fathom boxing's erosion of morality. It is one the few sports that remains ungoverned. It is a free market of opportunity for the most cunning and shrewd. The world of pugilism is a Galapagos Island where survival is based on rankings and rankings are open to the persuasive powers of money and influence.
The dirty half of professional boxing was thrust into the spotlight after Holyfield-Lewis I triggered a storm of controversy.
The IBF recently took the brunt of that storm when its president Bob Lee was indicted on charges of bribery and other assorted displays of under the table dealings.
The correlation between the two events cannot be denied. Although investigations were underway before the first Lewis-Holyfield matchup, the dubious result of the one-sided fight threw authorities into high gear.
Eugenia Williams, the only referee to score the first fight for Holyfield was also the only IBF-appointed official, and so the authorities focused on the most blatant of the culprits.
The recent attention the IBF has received as a result has thrown up a convenient smoke screen for boxing's other sanctioning bodies. While the IBF defends 13 years of questionable rankings, the WBC and WBA will attempt to throw their number one ranked heavyweights into mandatory, but otherwise ridiculously undeserved title shots.
The worst case scenario would be a WBA mandatory title defense pitting Lennox Lewis against octopus non-combatant Henry Akinwande. Nothing more than the smell of injustice parading right under our noses. It would be a rematch of one of the worst fights in heavyweight history. A fight that no one wants to see. The first time they met, Akinwande was disqualified for refusing to end his affectionate clinches.
The WBC has an equally undeserving candidate in number-one ranked John Ruiz. Ruiz has beaten a motley crew of journeymen and hand picked opponents and in no way has proven that his number-one ranking is legitimate.
It's clear to most that these rankings are not only unwarranted but the result of careful manipulation and politics. The proof is in the pudding. We don't need an investigation to realize that Henry Akinwande does not deserve his number-one ranking. No more than we need a degree in rocket science to figure out how he achieved such a genourous standing.
The IBF investigation into the purchase of rankings will do one of two things. It will either instigate a period of reform and an overall cleanup in the world of boxing, or it will take the focus off the other sanctioning bodies and serve as scapegoat and smokescreen.
We'll know which option rings true when we see who Lennox Lewis steps into the ring with when he defends his titles. Until then, we'll keep watching the salivating mouths of those hungry young fighters and hope that one day they'll be given the title shots they deserve.
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