BBBC dignified, Maccarinelli shamed...

Sounds like the Joe Calzaghe story...

 

Isn't that What Warren did with Calzaghe??

 

****ing beat me to it:rofl :rofl :rofl

 

Very; the BBB of C have let much worse matches happen. They are robbing Enzo and Sellars of a very decent pay day and at 39, Sellars is not going to get many of them. The BBB of C have got to be careful they do not end up in court for restraint of trade, they have made a bad decision.

 

Restraint of trade? Enzo and Sellars could box on an unlicensed show but other than that they have no comebacks...read the rules:deal

 

warren should show some balls and put him in with ding, personally i think enzo kicks his arse assuming he does not get caught with a big one...

/Theo

 

The very day that Amir Khan signed with Warren I predicted that there would eventually be problems between the Khans(who are similar in ambition and intelligence to the Hattons) and Warren. It hasn't occured yet, but it will,MARK MY WORDS

 

yeah, cause you're the first guy that said this :roll:

 

The WBO should read their own rules Sellars was rated #15, thus under their rules was entitled to be a challenger if the champ wanted to fight him...

Sellars is as well known as any other non bBitish cruiserweight in this country, thanks to his efforts against Thompson and Nelson. So why should Enzo and Sellars not be allowed to make money of the back of that, if Sellars qualifies for a shot? It is a disgrace this fight has been called off IMO.

 

THE point is though he didn't deserve to be number 15 at all! They did that on behalf of Frank Warren to legitimize this sham of a title fight!! The BBBofC did their job and looked at the risk the fighter was taking, and like 99% of the people who know boxing, came to the conclusion that Ezra Sellers is too old and too knackered to be fighting a hard-hitting cruiserweight like Enzo Mac. At the end of the day, you can talk about the legal basis of allowing the fight all you want, but if Ezra Sellers had've been seriously injured in the ring the whole sport of boxing would be put on trial once again. Questions would be asked, such as:

"why did Ezra Sellers magically appear in the top 15 despite being more-or-less retired"
"on who's behalf did the WBO do that?"
"why was Ezra Sellers cleared to fight a world champion despite being 40 years old, a notorious china-chinned liability, and many years past his competetive peak?

and so on. Boxing's reputation would be scarred, a man's life could be put in serious jeopardy and all you would be able to say in your defence was "well, he was in the WBO top 15, so technically he should've been allowed to box." When the "boxing in crisis as Sellers falls into coma" headlines are all over the ****ing papers that will not be any defence at all. The safety of the fighters is the primary concern of the BBBofC, not promoting the "trade" as you call it. They made the right call. It doesn't matter where the WBO rank him, they're not the ones in charge, they're not the ones who'll be criminally liable if they're seen as not doing their job. If sellers went into a coma, his family could sue, the BBBofC could be found guilty of criminal neglect, and the whole sport of boxing in britain could be ****ed overnight.

Incidentally I agree with your earlier statement, the BBBofC have sanctioned worse fights than this in the past. However this does not mean that this fight should be acceptable. In truth, I think what has scared them the most is the fact that this is such a high profile mismatch where someone is at a clear risk of inury, they dont want to risk the adverse publicity. Which is fair enough, but they've done worse in the past. For instance, if this Mac - Sellers fight had gone ahead, and Sellers had been really hurt, it would've been big news and put them in a bad position. However, less profile mismatches slip beneath the radar.

There's also the fact that Sellers stands to be injured in a single bout, rather than over many years. The BBBofC still lets Peter Buckley (who is amazingly 31-246-11!) fight, but wont let Ezra Sellers? Thats much more dangerous. Science has shown that in general, serious injuries in a single fight are rare, but more often than not the accumulation of punches sustained over a career can lead to brain damage. The difference here is that if Ezra Sellers got injured in a single bout, he'd be straight into hospital and there'd be a big shitstorm about it, but if Peter Buckley gets parkinsons disease 10 years from now, no-one gives a ****. Its shocking that the likes of Tony Booth, Ojay Abrahams, Paul Bonson, Derek McAfferty and co still get licenses to box when in actual fact they're probably at much greater risk than Sellers. The reason why Sellers gets banned and those guys dont is because their damage cant be pinpointed to a certain fight, whereas the damage that Sellers risks is in this one fight and likely to be much more dramatic and liable to attract adverse publicity. In this sense you are spot on, they have a allowed much worse than Ezra Sellers to fight, but that doesnt mean that the danger to Sellers should be overlooked. It just means that the BBBofC should start clamping down on the ultra-journeyman who are putting themselves at great risk of serious brain injury later in life.

 

1. Because it's a similar situation to Vitali Klitschko? They obviously think that despite the ring rust, he is worthy of being top 15.

2. Nobodies and there isn't any proof to say otherwise.

3. Why was Muhammad Ali allowed to fight Larry Holmes, despite being 15 years past his best, showing signs of Parkinsons and against a top 10 fighter at heavyweight? This is not the first case of bull**** and it isn't the last. boxing is full of fights like Enzo/Sellers, so don't make it out like it's the worst thing ever. It's boxing, and, sadly, it happens.

 

"It's boxing, and, sadly, it happens."

1. What basis do they have to think Sellers has shaken off the ring rust? Would anyone have here had him in their personal top 15, no, top 30 even? The guy is basically retired, as someone of his age ought to be. Dont compare the guy to Vitali Klitschko, because Sellers couldn't take a shot even in his prime. Have any of the ESB rankings guys thought of sellers as top 15 material? Y'see, Herbie Hide is very similar in a lot of ways to this guy, but he's been way more active and he's a lot younger, so you can understand why they'd put him in in the top 10. Ezra Sellers is 10 years past his best.

2. If you think the WBO weren't acting in the interests of Frank Warren in making him appear in the top 15 despite one fight against a journeyman in 3 years then you're being wilfully naive. This guy isn't even good enough to get a license to box in this country! Darnell Wilson reckoned that Sellers wouldn't get a license to box in Maryland either if I'm not mistaken. Obviously the WBO's faith in Sellers is an exception rather than the rule. There's very little proof that I'm aware of, but if Sellers got severely injured and there was some kind of criminal investigation into what went on, I imagine the links between Sports Network and the WBO would very quicky be exposed. Any seasoned boxing fan KNOWS that the WBO and Frank Warren have a very special relationship, I doubt very much if the other boxing organisations would've put Sellers in the top 15 out of the blue like that. Infact, they didn't. I dont think he's even ranked by a lot of the others. The WBO Cruiserweight championship has been in the hands of Frank Warren for the last 10 years, and over those years many sub-standard opponents have been shipped in seemingly from nowhere as title challengers. Were used to this in boxing, so we tend to overlook how ****ing corrupt it actually is.

Of course, I do not know the inner workings of the WBO and Sports Network. All I know is that the WBO appears to be one of the favoured titles that Frank Warren fighters go for, and that once they win those titles they get easy defences. I know Frank is very litigous so as a disclaimer all I am saying here are my own personal observations, I cant base this on anything other than that, but based on those observations I would speculate that the WBO put Sellers in at 15 to do Frank a favour and let this fight happen, which shows terrible disregard for the sports fans, Enzo Maccarinelli's credibility as champion, for the reputation of the sport and most importantly the safety of Ezra Sellers.

As an aside, where would you rank Ezra Sellers in the cruiserweight division? And what sort of chance would you give him against Enzo? I'm sure that despite his being utterly shot he would probably lasted a round, maybe 2 rounds if Enzo was being cautious, but there's also a genuine risk for him. What say you?

3. Muhammed Ali SHOULDN'T have been allowed to fight Larry Holmes. God I wish the boxing authorities would've stopped that from happening, look at the state of Ali now for chirsts sake. We should learn from disgusting and shameful fights like that, and we should have proper sanctioning bodies that wouldn't allow that kind of thing to happen anymore. I KNOW boxing is full of fights like Enzo and Sellers, and it ****ing sickens me, and I'm very happy that this fight has been called off. Its not the worst thing ever, but to shrug your shoulders and say "well, thats boxing" does the sport no favours and is an awful attitude to have, especially when it comes to the health of another human being.