How did Alex Leapai "earn" this title fight???

The WBO belt was never required to become undisputed champion.

He will have to drop some belt if he wants to fight for the WBC belt.

Wlad wants an easy defence. Thats all there is to it.

 

Yes the WBO belt has never been highly regarded especially at heavyweight. While guys like Calzaghe, Barerra, Eubank etc gave the WBO belt credence at lower weights, at heavyweight it has always been a minor belt. Nobody regarded Hide, Morrison, Bentt, Akinwande as genuine champions when they were WBO champion. Even when Vitali had the WBO belt he was not seen as a genuine champion, just another contender.

Wlad dropping the WBO belt is meaningless. Did Bowe, Moorer, Mercer, Akinwande, Sanders get criticised for dropping the belt? No they did not because the belt is meaningless at heavyweight. Lewis never had the WBO belt, neither did Holyfield and they were both undisputed champions.

With Vitali practically retired Wlad is the heavyweight division. He is bigger than the WBO belt. All Wlad's toughest opposition in recent years have been mandatory defences, his voluntary opponents have been terrible so Wlad's has really been lucky to get another easy opponent that this time he can call a mandatory and pretend he has no choice when in reality when he has had a choice of an opponent, Mormeck, Pianeta, Wach and now Leapai is the level of opposition he likes to face.

 

Agree 100%.

There is no way the WBO pushed him into this fight. What makes this situation even worse is the fact he's waiting around for Lepai to recover when he could well postpone the fight like he did with Povetkin and fight a proper contender.

The Boystov v Leapai fight was an embarrassment to the sport. They could barely stand up from throwing punches and were falling into each other for most of the fight. Sad that the guy who lost was being set up as Wlads official mandatory:-(

 

Couple of Russian blokes might be putting in a bid to have the fight in australia

 

Without a powerful promoter he took his chances and made it, well done to him and his team. Nobody thinks he is the best option out there but he is more deserving than pianeta or mormeck in my opinion and at least has a KO chance for a few rounds.

 

If Leapai can't fight until May, Wlad should just fight someone else in March and fight Leapai in July or August.

 

If leapi is smart he should fight some really tall bum in between

 

And risk losing his biggest payday? F that!

 

He was a top 10 fighter with the WBO and then beat the number 1 ranked contender with the WBO. Tbh I'm actually surprised people aren't encouraging the WBO's decision here. Far too many Boxrecers concerned with a fighters 0 being intact it seems.

 

Wilder... Fury? :blood

 

It's one thing to lose your 0 against a world champion or a top level fighter. But when you lose it to a domestic level cruiser weight like Kulkov then go on to further losses to numerous domestic level heavies with 33-23 records then it says a lot about you as a fighter and your worthiness as a contender.

 

Yes but by not giving Leapai the shot it would be giving a huge fcuk off to all fringe contenders in the entire sport and make a mockery of what boxing is all about. Here is a man that earned his shot at the WBO title the proper way, the only way possible in fact without a big time promoter behind you. Earned his top 10 ranking by snatching their regional title, then stepped up by literally travelling to the other side of the Earth to expose in his own backyard the highly touted no.1 ranked Denis Boystov.

Leapia only problem here though is that the WBO title holder is also the unified number 1 man of the division. Nobody would make a fuss if he was fighting just for the WBO belt on his own. That's hardly Leapia's fault. Leapia like Chisora deserves respect for going out and earning his shot the proper way, travelling abroad and taking on top 10 fighters.

As title fight challengers go even at the same weight he's far more deserving than Arreola getting a title shot recently.

 

Who from the WBO top 10 did Boystov beat? None.

Beating Boystov isn't a ticket to a title shot. He was a nobody. Leapai didn't earn anything and it will be clear when the fight happens.

You look like a fool defending this because everybody knows it was a set up gone wrong.

 

The WBO sucks.

Either they did this by themselves or they were paid off. Either way they suck.

 

Boystov was a fringe contender himself and had been the WBO number 1 on 2 separate occasions so is it OK to **** him off from his rightly deserved mandatory shot but OK for Leapai? Add Helenius to that list as well he was WBO mandatory between Boystov's 2 stints as WBO number 1. Infact over the last 3 years 9 months since the last WBO mandatory defence why have none of mandatories not got a shot?

Boystov/Leapai was not even an official eliminator. All the other mandatory challengers over the years earned their number 1 spot one way or another yet were made to wait Leapai get's his shot as soon as he gets the number 1 position. How is that fair to all the other previous mandatory challengers who didn't get their shot.