The Incredible Expanding First Defense Deadline (Sanctioned Offenses Part IV)

In an Era of Questionably Sanctioned Interim Titles, A Quick Investigation of Why The WBA Does Not Have an Interim Cruiserweight Titleholder Despite the Lengthy Inactivity of Its Champion, Guillermo Jones

Guillermo (El Felino) Jones, the reigning WBA World Cruiserweight Champion, is a rarity in boxing. In 1998, the Panamian-born Jones, then a junior middleweight contender, first fought to a draw with and then lost a hard-fought split decision to WBA champion Laurent Boudouani, who would later be sacrificed to 1996 U.S. Olympic gold medallist David Reid. Despite the praise Jones received for his efforts against Boudouani, Jones, then 6’4” and 154 lbs, slowly fell off the radar of most boxing fans though remained fairly active. Fast-forward four years, nearly 40 pounds, and four weight classes, and Jones emerged at cruiserweight, reeled off several solid wins, and again found himself in the world title picture. Finally, after a brief visit to the heavyweight division, Jones won his first world championship in four tries, the WBA championship that he now holds, with a tenth round technical knockout of German titleholder Firat Arslan on September 28, 2008.

Jones’ remarkable ability to carry his skill set, as well as his punching power, up almost 60 pounds over the course of 10 years earned him the nickname “The Incredible Expanding Man” from his promoter Don King and others around boxing. Unfortunately, since capturing the WBA title in September 2008, “The Incredible Expanding Man” has also become known for the fact that he has not yet defended his title. In an era where the WBA and other sanctioning bodies have mired boxing in so-called “interim titles,” however, there remains only one WBA World Cruiserweight Champion. While this fact is admirable on its face, the fact that Jones has been permitted to take more than a year to make his first title defense raises serious questions as to whether the WBA treats its champions equally, as it has mandated several questionable bouts for “interim titles” since Jones won his, even when a lot less time had elapsed between the champion’s last defense and the bout for the interim title. A quick analysis of this possible inconsistent treatment follows.

The WBA Rules on Interim Championships

Under Rule C (22) of the “Rules of World Boxing Association” (“WBA Rules”):

“[w]hen a World Champion is unable to defend his title within the prescribed time period for debilitating medical reasons, legal reasons beyond his control, or any other justifiable reason the inactive champion may be named a Champion in Recess, and the Committee may select official contenders who will fight for an Interim Title. The medical reasons must be documented to the satisfaction of the Legal Director and Championships Committee. In general, the status of ‘Champion in Recess’ may not be longer than the applicable defense period.”

As to “prescribed time period[s],” WBA Rule C (11) provides, in relevant part, that “[u]nless otherwise directed by the Championship Committee, a boxer who obtains a title by defeating a champion must defend his title as follows…If the Official Contender, within nine (9) months from the date the title was obtained; if not the Official Contender, within one hundred twenty (120) days.” Prescribed time periods for mandatory defenses, however, may be reduced, extended, or otherwise modified “for good cause, either in response to a request for a Special Permit, or on [the Championships Committee’s] own initiative.” WBA Rule C(16).

The WBA Rules on Interim Championships as Applied to Jones

It was reported in April 2009 that the WBA was pushing for Jones to make his first defense against number one ranked contender Valery Brudov. The deadline for making the Jones-Brudov fight was to be June 26, 2009. However, in October of 2009, nearly four months after the purported deadline, the bout still had not occurred, and was either cancelled or postponed per Team Brudov because of a possible contract dispute. Most recently, nearly a year and four months after Jones stopped Arslan for the title, the WBA scheduled a purse bid for January 21, 2010. Jones has not defended the title in the interim.

Under WBA Rule C(11), it would appear as if Jones had to defend his title against Brudov within nine months of his defeat of Arslan, or by June 28, 2009. Once that did not happen, Jones could have been deemed a “Champion in Recess” if there was a “justifiable reason” and the WBA could have sanctioned an interim title bout between Brudov and the next highest ranked and available “official contender[].” It appears, however, that rather than deem Jones a “Champion in Recess,” the WBA exercised its authority under Rule C(16) to extend or otherwise modify Jones’ mandatory defense period. It is unclear from press reports whether this decision was made as a result of anything other than the WBA Championship Committee’s “own initiative.”

Quick Analysis of the WBA Interim Title Situation

The WBA’s official ratings as of October-November 2009 reflect that there are eight “interim champions.” Of them, only three (junior middleweight, bantamweight, and super flyweight) appear to have been rewarded after any of the periods of time in which the WBA mandates its champions to defend. One, the interim WBA lightweight title, was awarded to Miguel Acosta following his knockout of Urbano Antillion on July 25, 2009, the very same day “WBA World lightweight champion” Paulus Moses defended his title with a 12 round unanimous decision over Takehiro Shimada. Moses had not defended the title in six months, but was apparently not in recess, since he was able to defend it the same day Acosta fought for the interim title. Despite an interim champion being named the exact same day as Moses’ title defense, however, no interim cruiserweight championship has been contested even though Jones has not fought since defeating Arslan several hundred days ago.

Why Has Jones Been Allowed to Go So Long Without Being Declared a Champion in Recess?

The short answer is because the WBA has not opted, by its “own initiative,” to declare Jones a “champion in recess” and has instead extended the deadline for the making of his first defense. No other explanation, from a reading of the WBA Rules, would make much sense. One could speculate that the Panama-based WBA may favor its native son Jones, or his promoter, Don King, but there is no solid evidence to based such accusations on. In the end, however, the WBA is doing the ideal thing by keeping only one champion in the cruiserweight division in an era of multiple world champions within the same weight class due to the same sanctioning body on the one hand, but doing wrong by its champions in many other divisions by not uniformly applying its own rules on the other. It is this bizarre enforcement of, or failure to enforce, its own Rules that has gutted the credibility of the WBA and its sister sanctioning bodies. And it this particularly inexplicable failure to follow its own Rules that has allowed the “Incredible Expanding Man” to be given his incredible expanding first defense deadline.

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Punches After the Bell: A Cross-Claim for Mayweather?: On January 10, 2010, Judge Daniel Weinstein, who conducted the mediation between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.’s teams in an attempt to salvage their March 13, 2009 fight, issued an order concerning what occurred at the mediation. The order was the result of several published quotes attributed to Team Pacquiao that Mayweather alone was responsible for the demise of their proposed super-fight. Mayweather also issued a statement disputing the veracity to the Team Pacquiao’s post-mediation assertions. If what Judge Weinstein and Mayweather said is true, perhaps its Team Pacquiao that has now taken to making questionably truthful statements about their adversary…

Half MMAmazing Alert: It was reported recently that former multi-division world champion James (Lights Out) Toney is interested in partaking in mixed martial arts with the UFC. Toney is, however, still under contract Goossen-Tutor Promotions. Both Toney and his promoter have made public statements about his intentions, so the only question is how they have resolved to reconcile Toney’s possible endeavor into MMA with their promotional agreement…

Positive Test Puts Shannon in the Brig in New York: Dan Rafael of ESPN.com recently reported that former lineal heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs was suspended for 90 days in New York State after testing positive for a banned substance following his second round destruction of Marcus McGhee on December 3, 2009. Team Briggs has attributed the positive test to the myriad of medications that he takes for asthma. Like Toney’s positive testing following his bout with John (The Quiet Man) Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in 2005, therefore, it would appear that the adoption of a “therapeutic use” exception to suspension, which Standing 8 Court discussed in passing in “The Rules Regarding Blood That May Put Mayweather-Pacquiao in the Crypt,” may be appropriate in a situation such as this one, where Briggs has a lengthy and documented history of respiratory problems…

Morals Clause Alert in Germany: In the past month, two German-based contenders, Vitali Tajbert, the WBC interim super-featherweight champion, and WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Brahmer, have both had tangles with the law related to out-of-the-ring assaults. Tajbert was arrested for punching someone outside of a club in Stuttgart, Germany, while Brahmer was sentenced to 16 months for an assault outside of a bar. Both Tajbert’s promoter, Universum Box-Promotion, and Brahmer’s, Kraus Peter-Kohl, have not announced a release of either boxer as of the date of this article, but if either has a morals clause in the promotional agreement, the option may now be looming large…

DiBella’s Release of Jermain “Taylor” Made into Many Contracts: When promoter Lou DiBella announced in early December 2009 that he was releasing former middleweight champion Jermain (Bad Intentions) Taylor from his promotional agreement, DiBella expressed that he was concerned for Taylor’s health following his back-to-back knockout losses to Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham. However, it is not uncommon in a promotional agreement for the promoter to reserve the right to terminate or modify the terms of the agreement upon a loss by a boxer. In this situation, therefore, DiBella may not have even had to express any concern for Taylor’s health, and simply could have released him because of his string of recent losses…

Association of Boxing Commissions Continues To Exhibit Its Restlessness with Natives of Isleta Athletic Commission: As part of the continuing fall out from the Association of Boxing Commission’s (the “ABC”) dispute with the Isleta Athletic Commission (the “IAC”) following the scheduled bout between Holly Holm and Melissa Hernandez, the ABC recently advised the IAC that it would direct Fight Fax, Inc., the official record keeper for the sport, to amend the notes on the IAC’s suspension of Hernandez and to declare all bouts contested under the auspices of IAC “non-supervised fights,” as thus not counted toward a boxer’s official record, until proof of its legal existence is furnished. Boxers be advised: a loss will not really be a loss, nor a win a win, until this situation is cleared up. One might question, therefore, why to bother fighting at the Isleta Casino, given boxing’s inherent risks, if it may not even count…

California State Athletic Commission Institutes New Measures to Make Sure Exceptions Don’t Knock Out Rule: As of January 1, 2010, the California State Athletic Commission will not permit a scheduled bout to go forward if Fight Fax clearance is not provided for a given boxer within 48 hours of the weigh-in. The intention behind this new measure is to make sure all boxers are properly cleared to fight, even if they are last minute replacements. The end result of this new measure will be the apparent end to the practice of just letting a last minute replacement breeze through to a fight without proper clearance, and is certainly a positive step for the safety of such last minute replacements, even if the boxer and his management don’t see it that way.

* Why Moses even has the title when Juan Manuel Marquez also holds a WBA title at lightweight is another story altogether.

Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq. is an attorney at the New York law firm of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, LLP. He is also a New York State licensed boxing manager and the Chairman of the Sports Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. He can be e-mailed at haberman.paul@gmail.com. ©