For many fighters it takes years of hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears to make it to the top of their division. Every fighter has ambitions to make money to provide for themselves and their families and to become a world champion.
World titles are a dime a dozen today and hold little value to boxing fans other than a ranking and a promotional tool but to the fighters themselves, it means so much more. To be a champion usually means that you have earned your due and have beaten the best. To fight for a championship belt usually means you have fought and beat the rest of the contenders and in itself is an honorary accomplishment in itself.
Once in a blue moon you will find a fighter with hardly any fights actually compete for a title but those fighters are exceptionally talented. When you look at guys like Guillermo Rigondeaux or Vasyl Lomachenko who have fought with under ten fights and have won world titles it speaks highly of them. Usually fighters with ten or so fights will begin to mentioned for a youth title or a regional title.
Speaking of regional titles… there will be a regional title fight taking place towards the end of this month in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Jessie MacMillan (1-2-2) will take on Dominic Babineau (1-0, 1 KO) on November 28th in a CPBC (Canadian Professional Boxing Council) super featherweight Atlantic title bout.
How is this farce of a title fight worthy? No disrespect to the athletes as it takes a lot to step in the ring but having one fight does not grant you to be the top challenger and having one victory out of five fights does not put you at the top either. If you look at the rankings on BoxRec there are three fighters listed higher in the rankings than MacMillan. All three fighters are undefeated and have four victories. Whether they chose to fight for the regional title or not is beyond me but if there is not anyone available with enough fights it would be best to just leave said title vacant.
This title fight is a slap in the face to fans. If it is being used as a means to sell tickets then there are other ways to do so. To quote a friend of mine, “the fans deserve better and the professional boxers certainly deserve better respect .The CPBC should be ashamed of themselves. Canadian boxing deserves better than this.”
