Boxers Forced To Pay For Titles Is Despicable

By Scoop Malinowski

Terence Crawford was stripped of his WBC Super Middleweight title for not paying the World Boxing Council sanctioning fees of nearly $400,000 a six percent cut of his $50 million.

“He forgot how he got to make $50 million,” WBC boss Mauricio Sulaiman said. “It’s very unfortunate that the WBC did not even receive an acknowledgement of receipt nor anything in response to any of those communications.”

Boxing is the only sport where a champion has to pay for his title earned the hard way through his blood, sweat and tears. In tennis, the Wimbledon champions in singles receives a check for $4.124m and the coveted golden plate – he and she do not have to pay any fees. How on earth this practice ever became acceptable in boxing is one of the worst injustices in sports.

Crawford was defiant about refusing to pay Sulaiman and the WBC, revealing that Sulaiman and his cronies are treated to the best hotels and restaurants for fight weekends, which of course are paid for by the fighters.

LeRoy Neiman once told me he was an invited guest at Jose Sulaiman’s – not home, not mansion but “palace” in Mexico.