Errol Spence Jr. apparently has an open invitation from at least one sanctioning body to have some of his suspicions about its finances allayed.
Spence, the unified welterweight champion from Desoto, Texas, recently called into question what boxing’s sanctioning bodies were doing with the fees they received from fighters’ purses. Spence broadcasted his concerns during the press conference in New York City for his upcoming undisputed welterweight showdown against fellow titlist Terence Crawford on July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Showtime Pay-Per-View. The fight will feature belts from the four major sanctioning bodies in the sport: the WBO, WBA, WBC, and IBF—which means both fighters will have to pay three percent each to those four outfits for the rights to become the undisputed champion. Spence holds the WBA, WBC, and IBF belts, while Crawford owns the WBO version.
“We give three percent to these organizations,” Spence said. “I mean, we gotta know where this money going to. I mean, a lotta times they gettin’ – man, you got Canelo and Joshua and all these guys, you know, making $50 million dollars [per fight] and these belts gettin’ three percent of that. Where’s it going to? How is it helping the fighters out? What are they doing with it?”
Asked about Spence’s comment, Mauricio Sulaiman, the head of the Mexico City-based WBC, said he would work to “re-enforce” their communication with the champion so that he understands better how his money is being used by the company.
“He has every right, being our champion, [to know] what we do with that money,” Sulaiman told a group of reporters recently in a video by FightHubTV that also translated Sulaiman’s remarks from Spanish to English. “If he doesn’t know, we have to re-enforce our communication with our champions because the WBC is open.
“We are an organization that has invested millions in medical studies that has changed the course of the sport to make it safer for boxers. We have to help fighters after their retirement with funds.
“We are an organization that has an amateur committee, we have offices in Mexico, and other countries like the US. We have a lot of committees in which we work, day to day, for the good of boxing.
“We have employees also. We have 50 in Mexico. From doctors, ring officials, legal counsel, the WBC Cares program that does a lot of social work.
“He has every right to question because it’s his money that he makes inside the ring and it’s the tax he pays to be able to wear our green and gold belt. If he wishes to defend [our belt], that’s good, if not, that’s also OK. But it’s every boxer’s dream to have our green and gold belt. But I like that he asks because we have a great explanation that when a boxer finds out they are proud to be a WBC champion.”
Sanctioning bodies purport to bring structure and coherence to a fundamentally chaotic sport—but their rules and regulations can often appear arbitrary and dizzying to those on the outside, to say nothing of the fact that they are essentially accountable to no one but themselves. They have also, not surprisingly, have had to contend with suspicions of skullduggery and corruption over the years. Sanctioning bodies have been the subject of lengthy FBI probes. The IBF, famously, was indicted by the federal government, in 1999, on racketeering and bribery charges.
Sulaiman stated that he does not think Spence made his comments out of spite and brought up how the organization was “supporting” him when he had his heinous car accident in 2019.
“This is the structure of the sport,” Sulaiman continued. “Him as a boxer charges [us] for stuff. Judges, refs, there’s a cost. The ringside doctors, PR campaigns. What the WBC charges is a sanctioning fee that goes with the level of the fight. I don’t mind that people question it, but it would hurt me if there was negative intent with the questioning. But I didn’t get that from Spence.
“Spence, I think, knows what the WBC has done for him as our champion. We have been supporting him, with the accident, always have been supporting him unconditionally, and he’s a great boxer and I am very proud of him.”
Spence is not the only high-profile fighter who has openly groused against sanctioning bodies. Retired Hall of Famer Andre Ward has frequently spoken out against the organizations.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.