(Julio Ceja, left; Jamie McDonnell, right)
Boxing world championships are open to interpretation these days (as in wide open). For some, the decision makers at the WBC, WBA and IBF remain the official ports of call on such matters. Longevity, rather than superior governance, appears to have afforded them prominence over newer bodies such as the WBO, IBO and WBU. One of these organisations — the IBF — plans to crown a boxer they will hail as their 15th consecutive world bantamweight champion on Saturday, as England’s Jamie McDonnell tackles Mexican Julio Ceja in Doncaster.
11 years ago, Ring Magazine, a boxing publication under the stewardship of Nigel Collins, attempted to identify a single champion in each of the 17 weight divisions as a direct response to the continued proliferation of world titles. Long ago, boxing operated under a similar model, back when the number of weight classes totalled just eight.
Ring adopted rigid criterion which, if any fighter could meet them, would see them rewarded with a championship belt financed by the magazine (rather than being procured from a sanctioning fee the fighter themselves had paid to an organisation in return for governing their fight). Ring had been in the business of awarding world titles from 1922 up until the early 90s and Collins hoped that in reinstating a historical practice, he could assist in marginalising the bureaucratic corporations he had condemned as having injured the sport.
After promotional outfit Golden Boy purchased the magazine in 2007, Ring underwent sweeping changes. Collins and his editorial team were subsequently replaced and the magazine’s championship policy was later revised, making it easier, in theory, for a bout to fulfil championship status.
As a direct consequence of this development, the self-appointed Transnational Boxing Ratings Board formed in 2012. This latest entity, a media splinter group (many of whom had defected from Ring’s original ratings panel) promised integrity and reason; however, fighters designated as champions (there are five at present) are not acknowledged in boxing’s usual manner. The TBRB doesn’t yet offer trophies or belts, merely kudos from its panel of experts. Still in its infancy, it is questionable whether the boxers themselves are even aware they have been hailed as champions.
One of the main issues with alternative systems such as these is that neither Ring nor the TBRB hold sufficient influence to mandate a contest. Their champions happen almost by chance, should boxing’s real power-brokers, the TV networks, decide to bankroll a match between the two best fighters in a division. Boxers are unable to lobby higher rated peers to face them in either set of rankings. Ordering two boxers into a ring is still very much the province of the governing corporations and in order to further a career, a fighter usually has to acquiesce to them at some point.
It is a bewildering jumble. Fans have been left in a perpetual state of confusion. Managers and promoters have been forced to operate within the melee, aiming to appease networks that maintain a preference for having titles attached to telecasts. And at the bottom of it all, there are the fighters. And fighters crave belts and probably shall forever more.
Jamie McDonnell looks to fulfil a dream this weekend in becoming a boxing world champion before his home fans. Ring have the fight pegged as #9 (Ceja) versus an unranked opponent (McDonnell). The TBRB have it as number #7 (McDonnell) against #9 (Ceja). But for the IBF, McDonnell, Ceja and promoter Dennis Hobson it is a championship fight and nothing less.
Attercliffe-born Hobson, a former market trader and scrap merchant turned self-made man of means, has invested heavily in McDonnell. After initially managing to finagle a crack at Mexican Hugo Cazares for the WBA version of the crown, Hobson beat a strategic retreat after losing his purse bid (the alternative was a prohibitive away fixture in South America). Then, after Leo Santa Cruz vacated the IBF variant, McDonnell and Ceja were best placed to decide his replacement and Hobson niftily hustled home advantage for McDonnell at Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium, which boasts a 15,000 capacity.
If only half of that number turn out then it will have been some feat. McDonnell has fought almost exclusively in leisure centres throughout his career and is barely known outside of boxing circles. Hobson, though, a lifelong scuffler, has hawked the match-up in a manner that would appease Lord Alan Sugar himself. A promotional team has seen fit to plaster half of Yorkshire in posters and flyers. The drum has been banged long and hard within local communities and through sheer hard graft — rather than via a tweet tweet here (and a tweet tweet there) — word appears to have filtered out. Only the weather can scupper them now.
Not content with a healthy live gate, Hobson has purchased airtime from pay-per-view provider Primetime TV in order to deliver the coverage this bout plainly deserves. Unable to secure a deal with the likes of BoxNation and Sky Sports, Hobson has needed to gamble. Time will tell whether pride in his work and faith in his fighter has preceded a hefty financial fall.
McDonnell, 20-2-1 (9), Doncaster, South Yorkshire, is unusually tall and spindle-like for a bantamweight. At 27, he is in his prime and he holds solid wins over the likes of Jerome Arnould, Stephane Jamoye, Stuart Hall and Ivan Pozo. Prepared by Dave Hulley at the Empress Ballroom Gym in Mexborough, McDonnell is as fit as a greyhound — an ever-improving lanky boxer that has performed when the chips were down. He will need to produce the performance of his career, though, if he is to derail the babyfaced danger-man.
Ceja, 24-0 (22), Atizapan de Zaragoza, México, is a 20-year old kayo artist. He is heavily favoured to maintain his unbeaten record against McDonnell despite having fought every one of his contests in Mexico. Only 15 of the men he has scalped held winning records; however, his last seven opponents tallied 215 wins between them, which should allay suspicion his record has been padded. He punches hard and true, stalking an opponent before darting in and out of range at a clip, and will continually look to shepherd an opponent backwards and then right and into the path of his fight-terminating left hook. Renowned trainer Ignacio Beristain will marshal his corner.
“Pollito” (a cutesy term of endearment as opposed to a chicken) is a 1-2 favourite with bookmakers, which is rare for an untested boxer campaigning so far from home. YouTube footage reveals a more spiteful-hitting clone of the Belgian peril Stephane Jamoye, who McDonnell battled past in 2011. The visitor’s left handed liver shot could prove a key weapon as he looks to weaken the willowy local by hacking away at his roots.
McDonnell will aim to box from range, yet he can look slightly wooden at times and has a habit of hunkering down to an opponent’s level once they wheedle their way close to him. He can also leave himself wide open when hooking to an opponent’s ribs, which is a tactic he would be wise to avoid against the short, chopping arms of the Mexican. In a tense affair that could be akin to a high-wire act at times, McDonnell must aim to box, fiddle and hold his way to a monumental decision victory that would leave Doncaster rocking well into the night. Ceja, though, will probably only require one shot to ruin the conga line altogether.
Former McDonnell victim and current British bantamweight boss Stuart Hall, 14-2-1 (7), takes on American Sergio Perales, 22-1 (14), on the undercard. Darlington’s Hall will trust that a victory here can facilitate his own world title fight. Hobson will know on Sunday whether he has enough chips left in order to sponsor it.
