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TheSweetScience.com

FRIDAY 9 MARCH 2007

Brian Jasper's Pugilistic Musings

Brody splits with promoter,
eyes Haynes and the IBL

The surprising development that has seen Detroit-born heavyweight boxer Brutus Brody split with promoter Tyrone Hillier and pursue a contract with the International Boxing League could very well be the final nail in the coffin for the struggling World Boxing Council. Having won all of his twelve professional bouts by stoppage, 28 year-old Brody is regarded as one of the most destructive punchers in the sport today and was expected to claim the WBC's heavyweight title later this year and bring some much-needed relevance to the sanctioning body. However, those plans have all gone up in smoke and the genesis of the situation can be traced back to early February when Brody fired his Hillier-appointed manager Darryl Long and gave the job to his lifelong but until-recently-estranged friend Jimmy Vickers.

Anyone who has followed Brody's career would know that he was making a living dealing drugs on the tough streets of Detroit before stepping into the ring for the first time just on twelve months ago. He signed a promotional contract with Hillier in late July after the Chicago-based promoter treated him to a night of fine food, liquor and even finer women at the Renaissance Center's Marriott hotel in Detroit. Everything seemed to be progressing well in their partnership until Vickers came back into the boxer's life last month. Not only one of his closest friends, Vickers was also a business associate of Brody's during his time in the drug trade. They caught up with each other over a dinner and by the time it was over Vickers had convinced Brody to fire Long and make him his manager.

Understandably, Hillier was not thrilled by Brody's decision but he accepted it. Brody was scheduled to fight DC journeyman Larry Swindle on the February 24 Gutierrez-Arcari card in Atlantic City, but Swindle pulled out of the bout just two days beforehand. Hillier rushed to find a replacement despite Brody's protests that he'd prefer not to fight, putting him in against a completely unsuitable opponent in blown-up inactive cruiserweight Derek Amos. Brody dispatched Amos in one round but endured a chorus of boos and insults from the crowd, who were disgusted by the mismatch. Brody and Vickers argued with Hillier at ringside, with the manager making an angry proclamation to the press in which he said that the promoter owed the crowd and Brody an apology.

Already strained, the relationship between Hillier and Brody has only become worse in the two weeks since the night of the fight. While looking over Brody's promotional and financial papers Vickers discovered that Hillier had been underpaying the fighter by almost 20% during the entire period of their agreement. In addition, it seems that Vickers had been doing everything he could since taking on the role of manager to convince Brody that he was wasting his time fighting for the WBC, telling him that no one would recognise him as the best heavyweight in the world until he defeated Terone Haynes.

Under Hillier's guidance Brody had been content to simply destroy whoever the promoter put in front of him and held little concern for whether he was the best or not. But Vickers had planted the seed in his mind, and combined with Brody's anger over the Amos fight and the financial irregularities the situation came to a head last Friday. Apparently Brody, Vickers and an entourage of at least a half-dozen "heavies" visited the promoter's Chicago office. When they left twenty minutes later Brody was no longer contracted to Hillier's Windy City Promotions. That much has been confirmed in a statement released by Hillier on Monday and although there's been nothing else said on the issue, it can only be assumed that Hillier was threatened in some way before releasing the fighter from his contract.

On Wednesday the IBL revealed that, now a free agent, Brody had contacted the organisation expressing his interest in joining it. There's been no word from either party since, which brings us to today. It's obvious that it's simply a matter of when rather than if as far as Brody joining the league is concerned. He's expressed his goal and it's a simple one: to fight and defeat Terone Haynes. However, what he and Vickers may not have considered is that if he joins the IBL he'll have to start at the bottom and fight his way to the top. I don't doubt his ability to do so, but whether Terone Haynes is still world champion in eighteen months remains to be seen. He's the alpha dog right now but there's plently of talent nipping at his heels and it would be a huge achievement if he's able to retain the title.

I'd think that making that climb won't worry Brody as, in comparison to the situation he was in with Hillier, he would be able to see with each win and each subsequent jump in the rankings how much closer he is to a title shot. Hillier had apparently promised him that he'd be WBC champion by the end of 2007 but the promoter's past is littered with incidents of making such assurances to fighters and having them ultimately proven empty and false. I'm sure Vickers has convinced Brody that competing under the IBL banner will bring him much more legitimacy than the WBC ever could have. Legitimacy is something that Brody would not have given a second thought to prior to Vickers' involvement in his career but it's now one of the things that's going to bring him to the IBL.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Brody's split from Hillier is going to have tremendous ramifications for the WBC. They would have been banking on Brody's eventual rise to the championship and the sanctioning fees his reign would have garnered. Coupled with the fact that by this time next year featherweight champion Jim Driscoll will be in the IBO camp the WBC's future status looks precarious, at best. Surely the time is now right for them to pursue a merger with the similarly fragile WBA, but knowing the pig-headedness of both organisation's bosses I can't see it happening. They'd rather perish than survive in partnership with each other. It could be that boxing fans will eventually owe a big "thank you" to Mr. Jimmy Vickers, the man who may have just accelerated the downfall of the WBC.

Intriguing matchups on
regional title schedule

On Tuesday the IBL released the schedule for next month's series of regional title bouts and there are some interesting matchups on the list. Only eleven of the league's eighteen inaugural regional champions successfully retained their championships in their first defenses last month so it's going to be interesting to see how many of them can keep those belts strapped around their waists for a further eight weeks. Two of them, the bantamweight Orlando Canizales and flyweight Piolo Fuentes, will be making their first defenses in April after rematches were required for them to claim their titles. There's a number of bouts on the schedule that are actually rematches of the inaugural title bouts from December so whether any of the results end up being reversed this time is certainly something to look out for.

Following is the complete schedule, with the defending champion listed first:

29 March: Providence, Guyana, Americas junior-heavyweight championship
Wayne Braithwaite (Guyana, 22-5(15)) vs Eric Fields (USA, 22-5-1(13))

30 March: Dundalk, Ireland, Inter-Continental junior-heavyweight championship
Tom Sharkey (Ireland, 17-1-1(15)) vs Lubos Suda (Czech Republic, 22-3-1(14))

31 March: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Americas welterweight championship
Bernabe Carbajal (Mexico, 11-0-2(7)) vs Virgil Akins (USA, 13-1-1(9))

31 March: Berlin, Germany, Inter-Continental welterweight championship
Reinhardt Kohler (Germany, 11-1(7)) vs Ashley Jackson (United Kingdom, 10-1(8))

4 April: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Inter-Continental light-heavyweight championship
Mark Somogyi (Australia, 14-0(10)) vs Petite Fourie (France, 9-2(5))

5 April: Manila, Philippines, Inter-Continental lightweight championship
Ben Villaflor (Philippines, 18-1(10)) vs Rene Barrientos (Philippines, 12-4-2(6))

6 April: Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, Americas lightweight championship
Ike Williams (USA, 8-1(6)) vs Nicolas Fillion (Canada, 9-1(2))

7 April: New York, New York, USA, Americas light-heavyweight championship
Melio Bettina (USA, 10-1(5)) vs Scot Long (USA, 10-1-2(4))

12 April: Los Angeles, California, USA, Americas featherweight championship
Ruben Castillo (USA, 11-0-1(7)) vs Raul Cruz (Mexico, 15-3-1(7))

13 April: Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Americas middleweight championship
Greg Gorecky (Canada, 10-0(5)) vs Frank Battaglia (Canada, 8-2(3))

14 April: Nottingham, England, Inter-Continental middleweight championship
Ian Lord (United Kingdom, 12-0(6)) vs Randy Turpin (United Kingdom, 13-1(10))

14 April: Nottingham, England, Inter-Cotinental featherweight championship
Charlie Beniston (United Kingdom, 10-0(5)) vs Withaya Paholpat (Thailand, 10-2(3))

18 April: Panama City, Panama, Americas flyweight championship
Hilario Zapata (Panama, 17-0-1(9)) vs Humberto Gonzales (Mexico, 12-2-1(9))

19 April: Manila, Philippines Inter-Continental flyweight championship
Piolo Fuentes (Philippines, 9-0-2(6)) vs Hiroyuki Ebihara (Japan, 17-4-2(12))

20 April: Berlin, Germany, Inter-Continental heavyweight championship
Max Schmeling (Germany, 17-0(13)) vs Juan de la Cruz (Philippines, 8-1(7))

21 April: Los Angeles, California, USA, Americas heavyweight championship
Sam McVey (USA, 11-1(7)) vs Mike Hanson (USA, 10-1(8))

27 April: Milan, Italy, Inter-Continental bantamweight championship
Casper Leon (Italy, 19-3(12)) vs Johnny King (United Kingdom, 15-2(6))

28 April: Laredo, Texas, USA, Americas bantamweight championship
Orlando Canizales (USA, 19-2-2(14)) vs Julian Solis (Puerto Rico, 29-2-1(22))