Vasyl Anatolyevich Lomachenko vs. Richard Oblitey Commey

December 11th @ MSG (the "Big Room", not the Lil' aka "Hulu" Theater). 12 rounds @ lightweight for no goddamn reason.

Seriously, I hate this ****. If there's no belt of any kind on the line and the fight isn't an eliminator, the absolute CEILING is ten scheduled rounds. You don't just arbtirarily set twelve as the length because either or both of the combatants are "big stars", that's garbage. Championship distance ought to be reserved for just what it says, and be inaccessible to anything short of the criteria...no matter the degree of celebrity of whoever involved. Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Márquez, Bernard Hopkins vs. Pavlik/Ornelas/RJJ, Danny Jacobs vs. JCC Jr., Oleksandr Usyk vs. Chazz Witherspoon et cetera...it has always irked me when they do this. KEEP ROUNDS ELEVEN AND TWELVE SET ASIDE FOR MATCHES WITH ACTUAL STAKES. I don't care whether it's the West Buttfuqq interim youth Silver title. If there's no belt, and no eliminator taking place, ten is the capper. Goddamn it.

And there's no reason they couldn't wrangle this into a world championship eliminator - that is perhaps the most frustrating thing here. Lomachenko is WBC and WBO #1, IBF #6 and WBA #3. Commey is WBC & IBF #5, and WBO #7. There, you can rationalize it being an eliminator for anything but the WBA. If you want it to be contested over 12 so very badly, then grease whatever palms you need to at the WBO, IBF or WBC offices and have them shift heaven & earth to make it an eliminator. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a final elim (not all of them are) - make it part of a box-off tourney with a couple other top-10 blokes, if you absolutely, desperately need that extra 6 minutes of action.

 

In the case of both the WBC and IBF, making it a final eliminator isn't even all that big a stretch. They're both top 5. Boom, do it, nobody bats an eyelash.

Or just let the high & mighty former titlists (including a former p4p ruler) compete in a freaking 10-rounder like the other beltless rank & file hoi polloi, so what? The sun would still rise tomorrow if they did.

 

I will never not feel inclined to shake my fist at the sky and rant when this happens.