With World Boxing Council (WBC) junior-bantamweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez rumoured to be on the verge of relinquishing his title, Rodney Berman has become highly suspicious of the manner in which the WBC conducts its business, especially when it comes to the ratings.
The Golden Gloves managing director’s suspicions came in the wake of two Japanese boxers Tomoya Tsuboi and Kenshiro Teraji pulling out of elimination bouts against International Boxing Organisation (IBO) junior-bantamweight champion Ricardo Malajika.
Suddenly, both Tsuboi and Teraji, who are now rated number one and two respectively, are in pole position to fight for the WBC junior-bantamweight title in the event of Rodriguez finally relinquishing it.
The WBC ordered during its December convention held in Thailand that Tsuboi should face off against Malajika in an elimination bout. But that fight never took place as Tsuboi showed no interest in facing Malajika.
“The WBC, at its December convention, ordered that Malajika must fight in an elimination bout against the Japanese boxer Tsuboi, who later pulled out of the fight. So far, no ruling from the WBC since. Instead, from nowhere Teraji leapfrogged Malajika to the number two rating. There’s no justification for that,” Berman said.
“This is very strange, especially when you consider that both these Japanese pulled out of fights against Malajika. Everybody expects Bam Rodriguez to vacate his WBC title. Then Teraji and Tsuboi will surely fight for the vacant title. This is disgusting. It looks suspicious and dodgy.”
Interestingly, Teraji, a two-weight division world champion, was not even in the top 10 WBC ratings before shooting up to second place.
And commenting following Teraji’s withdrawal from the IBF-mandated junior-bantamweight elimination bout against Malajika, Berman said: “The top two boxers are going to fight in an elimination bout. The guy rated number six (Ryusei Kawaura) is a no-no because he’s represented by the same people who represent Teraji.” – Monwabisi Jimlongo
