The International Boxing Federation is inserting itself into the business of titleholders like none of its three peers this year, stripping heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk days after he became the first undisputed champion in a generation, and then taking away the belt of none other than Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
More than two decades after a racketeering trial that found former IBF head Bob Lee guilty of bribery, the sanctioning body has operated as the biggest stickler among the others – WBC, WBA, WBO – in regard to obeying its bylaws regarding mandatory title defenses and related obligations.
This week, the IBF ruled that its new junior lightweight titleholder Anthony Cacace went outside the rules by agreeing to a fight with former featherweight titlist Josh Warrington.
In response, the IBF not only ruled that Cacace-Warrington is a non-title fight but also said Cacace will lose his belt in defeat. By steering clear of mandatory contender Eduardo Nunez now, Cacace will be obligated to fight Nunez by year’s end or lose his belt.
In an extended conversation over the IBF’s stringent responses on Tuesday’s edition of ProBox TV’s “Top Stories,” former world titleholders Chris Algieri and Paulie Malignaggi sought to make sense of the inexact policies that sanctioning bodies lean upon to make – or not make – impactful decisions.
“The IBF is the quickest to strip … I wish there could just be a standard that was set for everyone,” Malignaggi said.
Algieri said he’s bemused by the treatment of Cacace, asking, “Why does his belt become vacant if he loses? The belt’s not even on the line.”
The discretionary rules reminded Algieri of his own shoddy treatment by the WBO, which originally green-lit him as its 140-pound titleholder in 2014 to fight WBO welterweight belt holder Manny Pacquiao, and then reversed course and informed Algieri days before the fight that he would be stripped once he stepped into the ring with Pacquiao.
“There’s always things playing out behind the scenes in terms of why this fighter’s getting stripped and why this fighter holds on to it: It’s the almighty green [money],” Algieri said.
“Cacace is not as marketable. It looks like [the IBF] is propping him up for a loss. It all looks fishy. I don’t trust it. It doesn’t pass the sniff test. This is boxing. I know how this stuff works.”
The sanctioning bodies collect a 3 percent fee from fight purses, so the more popular the titleholder, the bigger the purses, and the richer the organization’s cut is.
That scenario has been pointed to repeatedly as a key factor why the WBC wouldn’t strip Alvarez of his super middleweight belt despite the long wait of previously top-ranked, unbeaten former WBC super middleweight titlist David Benavidez.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) became so fatigued by the process that he moved up to light heavyweight, hoping the WBC will back his effort to fight the winner of the Oct. 12 undisputed title fight between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev in Saudi Arabia.
It’s why Malignaggi wonders why the IBF was so slow to strip Alvarez of his belt for not fighting mandatory William Scull, who will now fight for the 168-pound belt against Russia’s Vladmir Shishkin next month in Germany.
“They stripped Usyk so quickly because they wanted [Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois] to fight [Saturday in front of more than 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium] … it makes you think,” Malignaggi said. “That’s where the double standard comes in.
“I’m all for stripping guys when they’re not fighting their mandatories and keeping the wheel turning – I think what’s happening in [Alvarez’s] division is completely disgraceful. But there’s a proper way to do it.”
The IBF most horrifically found its rankings system twisted in the case of unbeaten welterweight titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who less than two years after routing Karen Chukhadzhian by three 120-108 scores is now obligated to fight him again in a title defense.
Sanctioning bodies often don’t include rival bodies’ belt holders in their own rankings, making unifications difficult and leading to some preferential treatment.
“The frustrating thing about the sanctioning bodies is that there’s no consistency,” Malignaggi said.
One current interesting case is how the WBO will treat its “super” champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who is facing a counting clock of less than 10 days to inform WBO/WBC junior middleweight belt holder Sebastian Fundora whether he intends to fight him by year’s end or not.
But Crawford also wants a shot at Alvarez, who may not get back to Crawford during this shortening window.
While Crawford should be held accountable to making a decision or not under the deadline, a WBO official told BoxingScene this week, “The parties can certainly request for an extension.”
“The problem is boxing is just like real life – it’s all networking, it’s all connections, it’s all nepotism,” Malignaggi said. “So if you have a good relationship or if you bring in some more money, suddenly you see rules being bent while others may get stripped right away. I wouldn’t mind it being consistent, with standards that are upheld.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.