Rarely, in the sport of boxing, have we seen a fighter thoroughly deserve the reputation of someone who “only fights bums”, but in Junior Flyweight contender Ronald Chacon, there is no doubt that he is deserving of this label. Masamichi Yabuki coursed to a TKO victory over Chacon on the 28th of January at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya, Japan, thereby ending Chacon’s winning streak of twenty-five bouts.
The story of Ronald Chacon (28-2-1, 20 KO’s), is a unique and riveting tale about a Venezuelan boxer that persevered in the sport not necessarily through hard work, intelligence, luck or circumstance, but by fighting guys with losing records. With the last three out of four opponents – prior to facing Masamichi Yabuki (15-4, 14 KO’s) – not even having netted a single win throughout their career, it is truly an astonishing feat for one such as Chacon to have faced someone as Yabuki who – despite having less than twenty fights in his career – never sat idle in facing the best available.
Ronald Chacon’s first loss came during his debut when he lost by majority decision. His single draw came against a debutant in his fifth match. The common denominator of all the opponents Chacon lost or drew against? They didn’t have a losing record.
This is not a normal thing. Yes, boxers do tend to take on opponents with less flattering resume’s early in their career, but they always end up progressively fighting better and better combatants. Even the boxers who have been criticized for ‘fighting bums’ have barely looked past the top 50 to find their opponents at some point of their career, but not Chacon.
Ronald Chacon has literally made a career out of fighting guys with losing records. The only other boxers with a legit winning record that he fought were Yabuki, and another fighter that had nearly as many losses, as he had wins. This is far from a normal thing to occur in boxing. Somehow, Chacon got into the top 10 of several governing bodies, including the WBA and IBF ranking boards, and would likely be within contention of a world title had he beaten Yabuki on January 28th.
Masamichi Yabuki’s own resume is a stark contrast to Chacon’s. Yabuki suffered four losses throughout his career, all against fighters who would end up in the top 10 of various ranking boards, one even becoming a world champion in the same division in Junto Nakatani (24-0, 18 KO’s) who is now rated as one of the best Flyweights in the world. There is no doubt that Yabuki has fought one of the best he could and took a rather hard and arduous path to be considered one of the best in his division. But Chacon is not Yabuki.
His tendency to fight guys who would safely be considered ‘journeymen’ from the start of his career until now, has somehow been completely ignored by officials, and would never be considered praiseworthy in any sense of the word. This is why his stoppage loss to Yabuki was not only well-deserved, but a direct result of not challenging himself accordingly. It is likely that Chacon or his team figured that he could cruise to a world title by fighting opponents of much lesser skill and ability, and a Yabuki win would definitely catapult Chacon as a potential candidate for another world champion or a vacant world title.
Fortunately for the sport, Ronald Chacon was halted in his attempts to conquer a world title. At the current age of 31, this is not to say Chacon can not change or improve his resume, and he will likely still get chances against other top opponents if he’s willing, but we must always be vigilant of boxers like this who take advantage of the work of others to propel themselves into positions they do not deserve.
This is not a subjective rant or opinion; boxing is a sport. It is supposed to be competitive. There are dangers in this sport, dangers which Chacon further expands by putting himself against opponents who he widely outmatches. Yabuki may not have put Chacon into retirement – as they actually went eleven rounds before the stoppage victory for the Japanese Junior Flyweight, but he hopefully he has knocked some sense into Ronald Chacon to do better than just fighting guys with zero wins and seven losses in his 29th fight.
There are lessons that need to be learned from. In boxing, it is not unusual for top boxers to be called ‘bums’ for fighting ‘bums’, but the reality shows that most boxers fight the best available. There is relatively no boxer that’s highly-ranked that has a resume full of fighters that only have losing record, and there the list of boxers fighting 0-7 fighters more than halfway into their careers is decisively rarer.
While there are boxers who fight relatively unknown fighters, it is not at all out of the ordinary for this to occur, as there are plenty of talented boxers who receive no opportunities or recognition for their efforts. Ronald Chacon however, is the type of fighter that deservedly needs to be slandered for who he fights, not only because he wrongfully became considered one of the best fighters due to his position in the rankings, but also because of the danger he puts the type of boxers he fights, in.
We are therefore thankful, for Masamichi Yabuki, for doing his job the only way he knows how; stopping opponents or trying his damn hardest to do so, even if he ends up losing. Ronald Chacon simply deserved to lose, and his TKO loss should be a reminder to other boxers who think of carrying on in the same way. Boxing needs a level-playing field to be competitive, and no boxer should be rewarded for taking advantage of the fact the sport is not fully organized.
Hopefully, Chacon has learned his lesson and will now actually fight someone with a winning record.
