Chuck Minker
DOESN’T TAKE A COLLEGE STUDENT TO KNOW BOXING IS FIXED!
San Francisco, CA– A fortnight ago, my daughter Jacqueline Fernandez, an opinionated 21-year old headed for a life in the medical field, wrote an article entitled, “Boxing Is Fixed.” She attributed that to Blood Doping/EPO, Human Growth Hormone and Steroid usage. Although I am stealing her headline to an extent, the subject matter is different. In 1988, the current IBF 160 lb. champ Frank Tate, an Olympic Gold medal winner from 1984 had weight woes. His manager Bob Spagnola pleaded with the late Nevada Commission head Chuck Minker to allow Tate and his challenger Michael Nunn to weigh in the day before the fight.
MY TWO GOOD FRIENDS STARTED THIS
Both Spagnola is and the late Minker are both honorable men. Each yeart I never forget the month Chuck passed and what he said to ne before he died. Back to boxing, Bob needed to get Frank on a scale sooner rather than later because Tate had ballooned to around 200 lbs., and he was for all intents and purposes a walking dead man from shedding the weight. Then Jose Sulaiman, the President for life of the World Boxing Council, was of the opinion that fighters were less likely to get hurt in a fight if they had 24 hours (which has turned into more like 30 hours) to rehydrate themselves before a fight.
A FEATHERWEIGHT HASN’T FACED A FEATHERWEIGNT IN DECADES!
What I’m trying to say is that a featherweight (126 lbs) hasn’t fought at featherweight, a light heavyweight (175) has not fought at light heavyweight, I can on and on, but outside of the heavyweight division the current system of weighing fighters in is a fraud, an injustice, and as was the case with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Saturday, a crime against boxing which in California should be 245 A PC, Assault with a Deadly Weapon.
REMEMBER WHEN ARCE BELONGED TO JOSE SILLYMAN?This same sanctioning group, the WBC, they would weigh current WBO 122 lb. king Jorge Arce in on a Friday afternoon at 112 lbs. and he’d weigh as much as 129 3/4 come fight time. Why in the **** do we even go through the process of weighing fighters when they are not weighing anything close to the title they are either defending and or challenging for?
TRAINER FREDDIE ROACH SHOULD BE INDICTED, IF NOT ASHAMED!
On Friday, Chavez Jr. hit the scale at 160, as did defending champ Sebastian Zbik. Having not scored a KO in over three years and with 10 whacks in 30 wins, you think that the WBC and Chavez would have had enough of an advantage over the punch less German that they were assured victory, but that was not the enough as Zbik weighed 165 come fight time while Chavez, the current WBC poster boy, scaled 180 lbs.
THIS IS NOT FAIR, IT’S CRIMINAL & AN INSULT TO THE PUBLIC
Obviously, Chavez was not a middleweight, yet the ring announcer announced him after a Majority Decision as the new WBC middleweight, again a 160 lb., champion. Had things been on equal terms, Zbik would have fared much better on the two scorecards that had him losing.
WEIGH INS AS FRAUDULENT AS A THREE DOLLAR BILL!
This occurs nearly every time a title fight takes place. The only man with the balls in this business to call for same-day weigh ins is Greg Sirb of the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission. Sirb and myself have cited the NCAA Wrestling rules in regards to weigh ins, and they are held some two to three hours before a match. Like before they implemented this riule, nobody is dying in NCAA matches and when they meet in the center of the mat, they are within a couple of pounds if not ounces of one another.
CHALLENGE TO PACO & PEOPLES TO RIGHT SULAIMAN’S WRONGS
Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, the President of the WBO, the sanctioning body with the least amount of scoring controversies, this according to HBO judge Harold Lederman. Harold says this is because when Paco knows boxing and when he sees a bad judge, take for example Gale Van Hoye of Texas, he won’t use him again. Valcarcel takes and puts forth his best officials period.
IBF GUY PEOPLES HAS TO SHOW HE HAS SOME BALLS TOO
Daryl Peoples, the President of the IBF, both he and Valcarcel need to separate themselves from Sulaiman, a man once indicted for stealing Mexican artifacts from the Aztec era, smuggling them into and trying to sell them in the United States. What they need to do is to go back to early morning-same day weigh ins, this in attempt to make the sports resemble fair sporting contests.
MEXICAN FANS AT RICKY’S THOUGHT THE SAME
Not knowing their weights at the start of the fight, I commented on how much bigger Chavez looked than Zbik at Ricky’s Sports Theater last night in San Leandro, CA. At that point, a Mexican fan told me the weights of 180 and 165 and then went on to say. “Chavez is my guy. But this is not a fair fight. Anybody who out weighs the other guy by that much an unfair.
PEOPLE AND PACO MAY TRY AND B.S THE MEDIA HERE
Following the bullshit put forth by Jose, often times Jose Sillyman and not Sulaiman, if fighters are struggling to the extent that they are draining their body and brain of fluids to make a weight, they are fighting in the wrong division and need to move up. For to see a flyweight champion weighing 112 and fighting near 130 lbs., and Chavez a middleweight at 160 fighting at 180 lbs., is it any wonder why people don’t take boxing seriously.
LIKE A 8 CYLINDER CAR VS. A 4 CYLINDER VOLKSWAGON
I think that if Chuck Minker were still alive, and he saw the unfairness that these day before weigh ins have become, I’m sure I could convince him to change things back to same-day early morning weigh ins. As for manager Bob Spagnola, he isn’t too keen on day before weigh ins anymore either.
CHALLENGE TO PACO, PEOPLES, EVEN MANAGER SPAGNOLA
In closing, and this is to my good friends Francisco Valcarcel and Bob Spagnola. Bob, if your guy Austin Trout, the current WBA 154 lb. champion was to weigh 154 to fight some monster, and then to find out the next day that the monster gained 15 lbs. and as a result Austin was hurt as a result, how would you feel then? And Paco, if a Arce weighed 122 along with an opponent, one who later gained 15 lbs. and the challenger got hurt, how would you feel? It’s time for the people in charge to take charge and not adhere to ESPN or HBO, managers, promoters, it’s time for Paco, Peoples, and even managers like Bob Spagnola to admit that the current system is not only unjust, it’s dangerous!
Pedro Fernandez