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LAST year, Gerry Peñalosa won the World Boxing Organization (WBO)
bantamweight title by demolishing Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez, a fighter
who sported an impressive record of 34-5 with 29 knockouts and had
been champion for over two years.
On March, Manny Pacquiao captured the World
Boxing Council (WBC) junior lightweight title by beating Juan Manuel
Marquez, a former two-time world champion who paraded a record of
48-4 with 35 knockouts.
A few months from now, Filipino ring prospect AJ
“Bazooka” Banal will take on Panamian Rafael Concepcion for the
World Boxing Association (WBA) junior bantamweight (or super
flyweight) crown. Concepcion totes a record of 10-2-1 with 6
knockouts.
You don’t need to have the brains of Albert
Einstein to figure out what is wrong with the analogy. How can a
fighter like Concepcion, who has only 13 fights under his belt, be
considered deserving of a shot at the WBA junior bantam title? And
how can Banal, easily the country’s best ring prospect, stomach
the idea of winning a spurious title against a doughnut-knitted
adversary?
On paper, the mere mention of the acronym W.B.A.
gives the Banal-Concepcion fight a semblance of legitimacy. A boxing
fan with a discerning eye will however tell you that Banal appears
to be looking to take the easy road to the world title.
A moronic boxing rule is the primordial reason
why the Banal-Concepcion “world” title fight is taking place.
According to WBA championship rules, when a
boxer holds both the WBA version of the world title and a world
title from at least one of the other three major sanctioning (WBC,
IBF and WBO), the boxer is declared a unified champion (if he holds
two titles), undisputed champion (three titles), or super champion
(all four titles). The regular WBA world title is then vacated.
Just what is wrong with the aforementioned rule?
Well, on May 17, WBC junior bantam champ
Cristian Mijares defeated WBA counterpart champ Alexander
“Explosivo” Muñoz via a grueling 12-round split decision. The
victory made Mijares the WBC and WBA junior bantam champion.
Applying the championship rule of the WBA,
Mijares is now considered a unified champion (two titles: WBA and
WBC) and the regular WBA junior bantam crown is automatically
declared vacant. The rule doesn’t make any sense as it diminishes
the milestone pulled off by Mijares. The guy beat the regular WBA
champ Muñoz and is declared junior bantam champ of both the WBC and
WBA, and yet the WBA ends up vacating its version of the belt and
arranging a fight to determine a new champ. This vacant WBA throne
is the one Banal and Concepcion will be fighting for.
If you still can’t get the drift, Banal and
Concepcion will be fighting for a left-over belt. Whoever wins the
bout cannot be considered a genuine WBA junior bantam champ as the
legitimate version of the crown is now held by Mijares.
In a perfect world, Banal would be aiming for a
showdown with Mijares and not the lightly-regarded Concepcion.
Mexican Mijares, 35-3-2 with 14 knockouts, is a slick boxer who is
generally considered the best 115-pounder in the world today.
Another great option for Banal would be to go
after the International Boxing Federation’s (IBF) version of the
junior bantam crown held by Russian Dimitri “Baby” Kirilov.
Kirilov, 29-3, is set to lock mitts with Australian Vic Darchinyan
on August 8. It will be recalled that on April 6, Banal stopped
Caril Herrera (yet another patsy despite an unbeaten record), in
four rounds in a bout billed as an IBF title eliminator. Verily,
Banal can rightfully demand a shot at the winner of the
Kirilov-Darchinyan fight.
Instead, AJ is settling for breadcrumbs by
taking on Concepcion. Dubbed “El Torito,” Concepcion has been a
professional since 2002. Stretches of inactivity, however, has the
Panamian logging in only 13 fights. He fought only once in 2006 and
in his last fight (March 27) had to pick himself up from the canvas
twice before scoring a third-round stoppage over Jean Piero Perez.
Considering his enormous talent and potential,
Banal (17-0-1, 14 knockouts) deserves nothing less than a real title
challenge.
Gee, whatever happened to taking a chance?
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For comments, the writer can be reached at
atty_eduardo@ yahoo.com.
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