Banning Dereck Chisora Proved Once Again That The WBC Is A Joke

By Ronald Cameron

"Money talks and bullshit runs a marathon!" - Drug kingpin Nino Brown, from the movie New Jack City.  

This is what Nino Brown told that helpless guy who was hanging upside down by his feet by one of Nino's goons on a bridge in the classic movie, New Jack City. While Heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora is not fighting for his life, he was banned indefinitely by the WBC this past Tuesday for slapping WBC Heavyweight Champion, Vitali Klitschko before their fight and for getting into an altercation with former Heavyweight title holder David Haye a few hours after coming up short in his WBC title fight with Vitali.  While there is no doubt that Chisora was clearly out of line for attacking Haye in that manner, I have a HUGE problem with this suspension and I have a theory as to why Chisora was suspended by the WBC. 


First let's start with the suspension. I'm not going to go into great detail about the incident with Vitali because it was just a slap. Vitali settled things in the ring, so there is really nothing to discuss. But the incident with David Haye was a bit more serious.  Chisora did confront Haye, but Haye did throw and land a  punch and Haye was not suspended. In my opinion, the reason why David Haye was not suspended as opposed to Chisora is because Haye is a PPV draw and Chisora could not draw flies to feces. Does anyone remember when Mike Tyson attacked Lennox Lewis before their big fight and bit him on his leg? Did Mike Tyson get suspended for that? Exactly.  


I'll give you 2 more examples and I will compare them both: Before his fight with Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito got busted for trying to put illegal hand wraps on. Margarito was suspended for a year, but he has since been reinstated and he has fought in 2 PPV fights.  About 30 years ago, a similar incident occurred when journeyman Luis Resto took on undefeated contender Billy Collins. Resto gave Collins a severe beating, winning a 10 round decision but after the fight, Collins father and trainer Billy Sr. discovered that Resto's gloves felt thin and he demanded that the New York State Athletic Commission impound those gloves. The Commission did investigate this and they discovered that someone (Resto's trainer Panama Lewis) removed an ounce of padding in both gloves.


Sadly, Collins suffered permanent blurred vision from the injuries he sustained in that fight and he died a few months later in a car accident.  As for Resto and Lewis, both were eventually banned  from boxing for life and they were both found guilty of assault and conspiracy and both of them did some time in prison for their actions. For more information on this incident, I strongly suggest you watch the HBO special, "Assault in the Ring."  


The point I'm trying to make is that Luis Resto was a journeyman, who did not draw any money and he was banned for life for his actions and Margarito, even though they busted him before his fight with Mosley, the intent was there and he was only banned for a year and I strongly believe that the reason why he was allowed to fight again is because Margarito is a PPV draw who could in turn make money for the WBC and other boxing organizations. Money talks and BS runs a marathon.

Now let's get back to Dereck Chisora's incident. As I mentioned, Chisora is not a PPV draw, so it was like water under a bridge for the WBC to suspend him indefinitely because he's not someone who will put butts in the seats which would in turn put money in their pockets. There have been so many incidents that took place outside of the ring with fighters over the years and most of them did not result in any suspensions in part because most of the guys who got into those altercations were fighters who could draw money.  There is only one man I blame for this and that's the WBC President Jose Sulaiman.  I'm going to refrain from taking shots at him (Although I could write several articles just on some of the terrible decisions he has made over the years) but I will just say that  the WBC has been anything but respectable for many years and most of that has to do with him.

Dereck Chisora should have been fined for his actions a couple of weeks ago, but not suspended indefinitely.  I'm going to leave you all with this question: Do you think that the WBC would have suspended Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. if he did the exact same thing that Chisora did?  Money talks and .......you know the rest.