Not only will Mexican legend Erik Morales take on the always entertaining Argentinian Jorge Barrios on the September 17th undercard of Mayweather vs. Ortiz, but he'll also look to capture another world title now that the WBC jr. welterweight championship is at stake. Former champion Timothy Bradley has now been declared "Champion in Recess" by the WBC due to his inactivity, having last fought in January when he won back the title after defeating Devon Alexander. As much as I am happy for Morales, who would join Jorge Arce (although some may dispute his interim title) as one of Mexico's only four division champions should he win, the fact is that the WBC has once again made another bad decision.
This is yet another example of the WBC showing favoritism towards Mexican fighters. Last year, they gave disgraced former champion Antonio Margarito, a proven cheater who was banned a year for attempting to use illegal handwraps, an opportunity to fight for their jr. middleweight title, despite the fact that he hadn't even been campaigning at 154. Next, they gave Saul Alvarez an opportunity to face Matthew Hatton for their vacant jr. middleweight title , again despite the fact that Hatton had no recent history of fighting in the 154-pound division. Worst of all, they blatantly snatched their middleweight title from Sergio Martinez, under the guise that they were giving him the newly made up title of "champion emeritus", just so they could place it on a silver platter and hand it to Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Decisions like this only diminish the titles of the alphabet organization even more and puts a dark cloud over the sport of boxing. On the bright side, however, it does give Morales an opportunity to ride off into the sunset, once again, as one the greatest Mexican fighter ever. But the bottom line is that they stripped Timothy Bradley once before for no reason, back in 2009, and now they're basically doing it again. This is such a blatantly bad move by the WBC that even a blind man can see that the obvious plan is to make some extra money off of sanctioning fees and add the legendary name Erik Morales to their list of Mexican champions. I take nothing away from Morales, but if he does win, he will be the exact definition of a "paper" champion.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: FightHype would like to welcome the talents of Brad Jones to the team.]