While veteran British Heavyweight Derek Chisora has been relatively complimentative of Jake Paul in the recent past, a recent interview he held could not budge him from criticizing the WBC’s decision to officially rank Paul if he manages to defeat Tommy Fury in their upcoming fight on Sunday, February 26.
“No, no, no, I don’t think so.” Chisora said when asked about WBC’s intent to rank Jake Paul if he comes out the winner against Tommy Fury.
“It’s hard enough for real athletes, for real boxers, to get in those rankings, and then suddenly, (editor’s note: words unintelligible, “Mauricio Suleiman” is likely who he was referring to) decides to give (a) double ranking (referring to the winner getting ranked. More on this will be explained below) because he’s getting some greens (money) in his back pocket.
“No.” Chisora maintained.
“That is a disgrace to boxing.”
Chisora’s words on the matter were clear, and the sentiment has been shared by several other notable figures in boxing. Eddie Hearn, CEO of Matchroom Boxing, has echoed Chisora’s words as of recently and given his own opinion on WBC’s attempts to rank Jake Paul – or apparently Tommy Fury.
“Commercially, for the WBC, it might be fruitful for them in terms of publicity to put someone in the world rankings.” Hearn said when confronted on the WBC’s ranking announcement.
“Down at (ranking) 38 does it really matter? It shouldn’t be happening, but at the end of the day I don’t want to see fighters go in the top 15, who could get a title shot, or someone could lose the opportunity for a world title shot because Jake Paul has entered the rankings at number 13. That would be bad for the sport.
“Now they’re talking about top 40. I think it’s not irrelevant, but certainly not as much of an issue as that top 15.”
As a brief reminder, there has been NO form of communication by the WBC where they have stated Tommy Fury would be promoted himself, and even if that was the case, the official position on the WBC’s top 40 list of rankings would be thoroughly undeserved given neither Tommy or Paul have faced the level of opposition that would warrant such a promotion.
Unlike what other news outlets report, the WBC have made no mention of Tommy Fury other than him being a credible opponent for Jake Paul. It should also be made clear that any future announcements or attempts by the WBC to actually promote Fury, if he comes out the winner, should be as heavily scrutinized as Paul’s opportunity to move up in the rankings.
Hearn’s opinion also indicated that the top 40 didn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things, which could not be further from the truth. In the case of WBC, an organization that is alleged to be corrupt and frequently engages in trivial publicity stunts such as the introduction of their franchise belts, anyone with enough renown could enter the top 40. This is not the same for other governing bodies who seem to take the sport more seriously, and base their rankings off of merit, rather than popularity.
