By Sean Crose
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about who might be heir to the great Floyd Mayweather’s throne now that the pound for pound kingpin has officially retired. Well, the WBC, who recently named Mayweather champion emeritus at welterweight and junior middleweight, has decided to settle the matter the old fashioned way – tournament style.
That’s right, at least some of the princes and pretenders are going to face off in order to win the belts once wrapped around Mayweather’s abs. The big question now is, how will these fights be arranged and subsequently come to fruition? Details are scarce at the moment, but perhaps it’s likely that the organization’s top contenders in each division will be lined up to face off.
A look at those top contenders, however, leads to some pesky questions (you didn’t think anything would be that smooth in boxing, did you?). For instance, the WBCs web page lists the following fighters as its top four welterweight contenders as of 11/4/15:
1. Amir Khan
2. Danny Garcia
3. Shawn Porter
4. Robert Guerrero
Would Khan, for instance, be interested in facing any of these men if he felt he could get a PPV bout with Manny Pacquiao, or even Kell Brook instead? And while it’s easy to imagine Danny Garcia facing Robert Guerrero (why exactly is he still in the top four, anyway?), it’s worth wondering if Garcia would be willing to face, say, Porter (I personally think Garcia would, but I couldn’t fault someone for thinking otherwise).
What’s also interesting, of course, is the fact that each of these men is an Al Haymon fighter. How will VADA testing, which the WBC is soon about to engage in, effect the decision making process of Haymon, whose PBC cards have been allied with the beleaguered USADA testing program (and no, I am NOT implying that any one of these men is a doper)?
It’s horrible to imagine that this could all end up being a big mess, but it’s also worth wondering if any of it will matter to the fighters mentioned above. Word is out – and, admittedly, it’s just a rumor – that Haymon is going to start employing his own PBC titles for his PBC broadcasts. If that’s the case, will other organizations like the WBC continue to hold weight in the Haymonverse?
Of course, the WBC could go outside its current top four listed fighters for its upcoming tournament. Again, the details have not been set on or made public yet. Indeed, out of the top four WBC contenders at junior middleweight, only Australian Anthony Mundine is not affiliated with Haymon. Fear not, though, number five contender Austin Trout most certainly is.
No matter which way you look at it, that’s a very Haymoncentric bunch. Then again, Haymon has acquired himself a whole lot of top fighters.
