Frazer Clarke is upset about the WBC giving heavyweight champion Tyson Fury “special permission” to freeze his title, ignore his mandatory & top 15 contenders to go make some coin in a fight against MMA fighter Francis Ngannou on October 28th in a pay-per-view event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Clarke, and many other people, feel that Fury shouldn’t have been allowed to go off and fight a non-boxer in a combat event just to enrich himself and not give the top contenders a chance to change their lives by fighting for his belt and perhaps winning.
Ideally, Fury should be stripped of his WBC heavyweight title and removed from the rankings if he chooses to go ahead with his event against Ngannou.
Boxer’s careers are incredibly short, and if you have a wealthy champion like Fury, who is choosing not to freeze his title so he can go make money, he should be stripped, suspended for one year, and moved to the bottom of the rankings at #15.
You obviously wouldn’t see a move like this in the NFL, NBA, or NHL. A team couldn’t just say, ‘We’re going to take a break from league play so we can make money playing against a non-pro team. Just hold off on the schedule until we get this money, okay?’ The commissions that run those sports would refuse, and if they were ignored, they’d likely fine the team owners and suspend the team.
The WBC’s decision to allow Fury to freeze the careers of the contenders and fight a non-boxer is another reason why there needs to a person or organization that is in charge of all of the boxing so they can have oversight on the sanctioning bodies that act in a way that isn’t fair to the boxers.
For renegade-sanctioning bodies that are unethical, they need to be policed and, if need be, removed as a ranking organization.
“It is not a good look for them if their heavyweight champion goes off to fight an MMA fighter, possibly in an exhibition, when there is a queue of fighters in the top 10, top 15, waiting for their chance,” said Frazer Clarke to the Metro about Tyson Fury being allowed to do as pleases as the WBC heavyweight champion.
“They might not all be great fighters, but that is the reason you have rankings; people want to take on the number one. I think Tyson has the WBC by the balls. He is calling the shots.”
“He is that selective on who he wants to fight when he wants to fight, and for how much that it becomes hard work. People start to lose interest then and explore other options.”