Sometimes viewing the schedule of boxing events the world over I am taken aback by what passes for a legitimate show in some places. Here are a couple of shows that I cannot believe were allowed to go forward.
On April 30th Kwanthai Chor Nor Pattalung (22-0-1, KOs 12) will be fighting on the under card of Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (37-1, KOs 26) vs. Rafael Hernandez (11-2, KOs 10). Nevermind Kratingdaenggym cherry picking Hernandez for a shot at his WBA Ordinary World Super Bantamweight title, Pattalung’s handlers up the ante. He will be taking on Boy Tanto. Boy comes into the fight with a record of 3-5 with 4 losses coming via the knockout. Of course these bouts are taking place in Thailand, which in terms of legitimacy and integrity ranks somewhere between Charles Ponzi (the inventor of the Ponzi scheme) and Bernie Madoff, the one who perfected said scheme.
On May 1st at Tempelhof, Burges, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, they are going to do one better and according to boxrec are going to try to make money off of a card featuring guys with losing records as the main event! In this corner we have Beadin Sulejmanoski. He’s only 0-4, folks, but he has never been knocked out! In the other corner we have a veteran of twenty-three professional fights! A man that started his career at 2-0-1! Mr. Jean Louis Bryla! While that introduction would warm up some crowds, the fine print on it is Bryla is 4-16-3. He’s lost eight in a row. This match makes the suspension of Evander Holyfield look like a colossal over-reach.
With all of the press going to MMA, it might actually be a good sign that these events take place. If boxing was as dead as some believe could a promoter get away with throwing fights like these and still stay in business? While I would never advocate mismatches as egregious as these, perhaps there is a silver lining to crow about. Hell, at least we don’t have any large promotion that is so invested in one guy (Kimbo Slice) that a loss takes the whole ship down. Maybe our back alleys and rough and tumble backrooms aren’t so gloomy after all.