The WBC’s decision to strip unbeaten four-division champion Shakur Stevenson of his lightweight belt days after he displayed his greatness by moving up to take the WBO 140lbs from Teofimo Lopez is an injustice reeking of spite.
New Jersey’s Stevenson 25-0 (11KOS) labeled the WBC “crooks” following the decision, explaining the sanctioning body wanted him to pay a $100,000 fee for fighting at 140lbs, which he rejected.
Why that fee was necessary was not effectively explained, and on the heels of the bitter fallout between the WBC and Stevenson’s close friend, five-division champion Terence Crawford, it leaves the appearance that this was a punitive action.
Worse, at a time when the sanctioning bodies are being painted by the new Zuffa Boxing organization as unnecessary entities obsessed with collecting their 3% sanctioning fees, handling Stevenson this way is tone deaf at the highest level.
Performing as if he’s the heir apparent to Floyd Mayweather Jnr, nearly sweeping Lopez by three 119-109 scores at Madison Square Garden Saturday, Stevenson did all that any bona fide boxing fan could want from a fighter: move up in weight, meet a respected two-division champion, perform flawlessly.
You don’t want that guy wearing your belt?
Whether Stevenson, 28, intends to fight again at 135 is unknown, but did the WBC even ask him before it brazenly took away his strap?
Stevenson has said previously that he was open to a return at 135 – which counts IBF champion Raymond Muratalla, new WBO champion Abdullah Mason, Lamont Roach Jnr and former WBA champion Gervonta Davis, if he gets his domestic-violence legal episodes resolved.
For an organization that bent over backwards to curry favor to Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez when everyone knew he was dodging then-interim super-middleweight champion David Benavidez, the two-faced behavior in this moment is stomach turning.
As analyst Chris Algieri said on Thursday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today,” the “respect” was owed to champion Stevenson.
“You should’ve given [Stevenson] a grace period to return,” Algieri said. “Maybe [Stevenson leaving the lightweight division for good] was going to happen, but this happened so quick, it was spiteful.
“This is politics.”
At the WBC convention ratings meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in December, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman spoke of the importance of fighter “loyalty” to his organization while deciding a few slots on the ratings board.
At the same hearing, then-undisputed super-middleweight champion Crawford was stripped of his belt for not paying his owed $300,000 sanctioning fee from what Sulaiman said was a $50 million purse to defeat Alvarez.
That chapter made Crawford, who’s aligned with Zuffa Boxing financial backer Turki Alalshikh, appear petty.
But now, the petty shoe is fit snugly on Sulaiman’s foot.
“I do think holding up titles in two weight classes makes it difficult. I don’t believe [fighters] should keep both belts,” analyst and former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on “BoxingScene Today.”
“But you can’t pick and choose when you [strip]. … You give ammunition to the opposition here when you pick and choose when you enforce the rules, and when you don’t enforce the rules.”
Algieri and many others around the sport agree that “belts are important, they matter,” adding the WBC’s action will “keep the division moving,” allowing fighters like Puerto Rico’s WBC interim champion Jadier Herrera, No. 1 ranked William Zepeda of Mexico or second-ranked Roach to fight for the now-vacant belt.
Yet, the treatment of brushing aside a fighter who seems bound for pound-for-pound crowning came across as brash, bullying and dismissive – all the characteristics the WBC has aimed at Zuffa Boxing’s entry into the sport.
“Get a written consent,” from Stevenson that he’s leaving lightweight for good, “take a couple weeks,” Algieri said.
“It was the way it was handled.”
