Columnist Dean Juipe: IBF nabbed but others share guilt

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

In all probability the International Boxing Federation is no more corrupt than its two major counterparts, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Association.

But completely overlooked in the public commentary following last week's 32-count federal indictment of the IBF is, perhaps, the key item behind its emergence: As the only U.S.-based sanctioning body of the three, the IBF falls under the purview and jurisdiction of the United States Justice Department.

With the WBC based in Mexico City and the WBA in Caracas, those organizations are largely outside the scope of any U.S. policing. As a result, it's the New Jersey-based IBF taking the hit as a federal grand jury had access to its records and promiscuous bookkeeping.

The IBF brought this upon itself, of course. The investigation that led to last Thursday's indictments of IBF president Bobby Lee and three others was prompted by the IBF recommending the incompetent Eugenia Williams serve as a judge for the Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis fight March 13 in New York City.

Williams scored the fight for Holyfield, an act so preposterous it spawned a federal investigation. And by the time the feds were done with the IBF they had uncovered numerous instances of bribes, money laundering and racketeering.

While the IBF has been singled out and further castigated for the "revelation" that it is a for-profit organization, the guilt is far more widespread.

Here's a blanket statement that defies contradiction from the IBF, WBC or WBA: Influence is a key component every time they update their rankings. And that influence is gained by skullduggery, bribery or similar compensatory favors.

Fighters are often moved up or down in the rankings in accordance not only with their abilities and wins or losses, but by their connections to specific promoters, and, in turn, by their promoter's willingness "to do business" with a specific sanctioning organization. It has always been this way.

In some respects, limiting the strong arm of the law to cleaning up or abolishing the IBF serves no purpose whatsoever if its foreign counterparts continue to go unscathed.

The WBC is notorious for the preferential treatment it bestows upon its favored fighters (like countryman Julio Cesar Chavez) and promoters (such as Don King). Chavez has lost fights only to have the scores erroneously added at ringside, and King is forever sliding one of his fighters into the WBC's mandatory challenger position.

You be the judge: Is that simply their good fortune or have palms been greased along the way?

The WBA is a little less visible but no less inclined for an occasional unsavory act of its own. While there are two WBA title fights on Saturday's Holyfield vs. Lewis rematch undercard at the Thomas & Mack Center, the WBA's presence in the United States has declined in recent years as some speculate it has found it easier to conduct business in other, less-developed, less-policed countries.

So don't be too quick to throw the book at the IBF or wish for its demise.

It is no more greedy than its brethren, and the only real reason it is in its current bind is the result of its U.S. address.

archive