By Sean Jones: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman sounded like a politician on Thursday when asked if George Kambosos Jr. is the undisputed lightweight champion or not.
In response to the question by DAZN, Sulaiman launched into a long-winded, convoluted answer that ultimately made no sense. Unless this is what Sulaiman’s process is like, he sounded like he was dodging the question by rambling at length, going in different directions without answering the simple question on whether Kambosos is the undisputed champion or not.
It’s an essential question because promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing argues that Kambosos isn’t the undisputed champion and can only earn that distinction by beating WBC belt holder Devin Haney, who he promotes.
Haney is a champion in name only after being elevated to the spot without fighting anyone. The World Boxing Council installed Haney as their WBC lightweight champion in 2019, and he’s defended the belt proudly ever since, acting as if he’d fought for it rather than being elevated to that position.
Sulaiman fails to answer the question
“I think it’s nonsense,” Sulaiman said to the DAZN Boxing Show when asked if Kambosos is the undisputed champion at lightweight.
“People want to see great fights and having this confusion makes people angry,” Suliaman continued in appearing to dodge the question of whether Kambosos is the undisputed champion or not.
“I understand people see and view things differently. I completely respect that.
“The franchise designation goes to the facts; it has led to Teofimo vs. Lomachenko, Lomachenko against Kambosos. It has led to Ryan Garcia being active, Devin Haney against a great champion Linares, then JoJo Diaz.
“I’m very happy with the activity, very proud to see a great tournament unfolding and there are so many great fights that can happen whether it’s Kambosos and Haney, Ryan Garcia, Lomachenko, we don’t know about Teofimo Lopez, there’s so much talent,” said Sulaiman.
It’s interesting that the DAZN Boxing show host, Barak, didn’t stay on Sulaiman and insisted that he answer the question of whether Kambosos is the undisputed champion or not.
Barak likely gave up because he didn’t want to risk listening to Sulaiman go into another filibuster-esque level answer that would eat up the valuable remaining time on his program on Thursday night.
Suliaman was rambling in a way that had nothing to do with the question posed to him; he might have broken senator Huey Long’s 15-hour filibuster in 1935.
During Huey Long’s filibuster against the New Deal legislation, he gave his recipe for fried oysters.
Sulaiman sounded like he was heading in that direction when asked by DAZN whether Kambosos is the undisputed lightweight champion or not.
Sulaiman already said Kambosos is undisputed
Hearn’s argument in favor of why Haney should get the fight with four-belt champion Kambosos in April instead of Vasily Lomachenko is that boxing fans need the Kambosos-Haney fight to determine who the real undisputed champion is at 135.
Unfortunately, Sulaiman already confused boxing fans by saying Kambosos IS the undisputed champion after defeating Teofimo Lopez on November 27th. Kambosos holds the IBF, WBA, WBC Franchise, and WBO lightweight titles.
He doesn’t possess the WBC regular belt, which Hearn feels Kambosos needs for him to be called the undisputed champion. Meanwhile, the boxing public doesn’t care about the argument.
They view Kambosos as a champion because of his win over Teofimo. Whether he’s undisputed champion or not is a bunch of fluff that goes over their heads, and that’s why it’s not much of an argument that Hearn has to persuade Kambosos to face Haney rather than Lomachenko.
In the end, Kambosos and his promoter Lou DiBella will decide who they want based on the money and the chances of winning.
If the money offers from Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank is anywhere close to what Hearn’s Matchroom is offering to Kambosos, Haney will get the fight, even if his offer is lower.
The reason for that is because he’s beatable, and even if Kambosos loses to him, he won’t be humiliated the way he likely will if he faces Lomachenko.
Haney can’t punch, and the way he would beat Kambosos is to stay on the outside and jab him all night. Yeah, it would be boring, but still effective.
In contrast, if Kambosos faces Lomachenko, he’s going to get a boxing lesson and likely knocked out at some point unless he runs around the ring all night.
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