Highlighting the best
of the week’s stories
WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET8 lBOXING NEWSlJANUARY 11, 2018 http://www.boxingnewsonline.netNEWS
The WBA
stoop to
new low with
Joe Fournier
ranking,
writes
Elliot
Worsell
SOMETHING STINKS...
OOKING for
accuracy and
consistency in
the rankings of a
sanctioning body
is a bit like looking
for a decent
ringside judge in Nevada. It’s frustrating,
exhausting and pointless.
The latest set of rankings to perplex
those accustomed to being perplexed
was issued by the World Boxing
Association (WBA) on December 31.
Belated Christmas gifts for one and all,
the rankings consist of a plethora of
boxers who have either failed drug tests,
boast zero notable wins, or require a
Google search to help put a face to name.
While, admittedly, this caused confusion
in the Boxing News office, it also made
for a fun game, one that arrived a little
too late to be utilised during the festive
period: in short, scan the rankings, as
you would, say, a list of the 100 greatest
films of all time, and count the number of
boxers you’re able to recognise (without
consulting BoxRec).Of course, a ridiculous rankings
system isn’t a quirk exclusive to the WBA.
They’ve been a beacon of absurdity for
years, sure, but so too have the other
sanctioning bodies, all of whom bend
and rewrite their own rules to suit certain
boxers and promoters, and, in doing so,
bemuse and exasperate
anyone hoping to use
rankings to gauge a
fighter’s progress or,
indeed, understand a
division’s hierarchy.
What separates the
WBA from the pack this
time, though, and what
makes their January
rankings all the more
galling – the worst of
an awful bunch – is the
harebrained decision to place light-
heavyweight Joe Fournier, ‘nightclub
entrepreneur’ and 8-0 fighting neophyte,
at number 11. I’ll repeat. Joe Fournier,
a 34-year-old who has beaten only two
opponents with winning records, and
who, in 2016, failed a performance-enhancing drug test (for sibutramine), is
rated as the 11th best 175lb boxer on the
planet.
It gets worse, too. Hours after the
release of the rankings, Fournier took to
Twitter to announce the news, before
declaring he was now, according to the
WBA, the top-rated light-
heavyweight in Britain.
Cue a collective groan
and widespread derision.
And though I can’t say for
certain, it’s likely Frimley’s
Jake Ball, ranked at 14,
and by Fournier’s logic
the number two light-
heavyweight in the UK,
groaned the loudest.
“People were asking me
about it on social media,”
Ball, 25, told Boxing News. “They asked
if I would fight him if it was offered and
I said, yes, I’d fight him tomorrow. I’m a
fighter. I won’t turn anybody down.”
He should, however, absolutely turn
down a fight with Joe Fournier if it’s ever
offered. Not for his own good, but for
Photo: ACTION IMAGES/ANDREW COULDRIDGE
THE UNKNOWN:
Fournier, pictured
here in May 2016,
did not have a single
fight last year‘I’D
FIGHT HIM
TOMORROW.
I WON’T TURN
ANYBODY
DOWN’
L