A few weeks ago whilst looking at the schedule of up coming bouts we stumbled upon a bout for the ridiculously named "IBF East/West Europe Light Heavyweight title". The title was on the line as Nenad Stankovic of Serbia (East Europe) faced the amusing Hamza Wadera of Sweden (via Uganda) which as far as we're aware is northern Europe.
Whilst we're no problems at all with European titles we've got to merely wonder what an "East/West Europe" title is actually about. We came up with a few ideas but we're actually unsure.
In Japan the country has a rookie of the year competition in which the best rookie fighter from the East of the country fights the best rookie fighter from the West of the country.
Could it be that an "East/West" title was designed to be the European equivalent to the Japanese Rookie title? Or could it possibly be a title for fighters who aren't from central, northern or southern Europe to fight for? Could it be a title to try and just claim a sanctioning fee from those as confused as ourselves?
We've come to the conclusion that we will never really know (nor will we know how a Ugandan fighter who has only fought in Europe a handful of times qualifies for a shot at any "Europe" based title) though our conclusion is that the IBF are taking the title movement to the next, obvious direction.
We here at weirdboxing would like to congratulate the IBF on their announcement of a new series of belts including:
The IBF North/South Europe title
The IBF North/West Europe title
The IBF North/East Europe title
The IBF South/West Europe title
The IBF South/East Europe title
And of course the IBF "only certain parts of Europe but feel free to pay our sanctioning fees and we'll let you fight for it anyway title", sure it's not a catchy title but it'll do for now!
Whilst we're no problems at all with European titles we've got to merely wonder what an "East/West Europe" title is actually about. We came up with a few ideas but we're actually unsure.
In Japan the country has a rookie of the year competition in which the best rookie fighter from the East of the country fights the best rookie fighter from the West of the country.
Could it be that an "East/West" title was designed to be the European equivalent to the Japanese Rookie title? Or could it possibly be a title for fighters who aren't from central, northern or southern Europe to fight for? Could it be a title to try and just claim a sanctioning fee from those as confused as ourselves?
We've come to the conclusion that we will never really know (nor will we know how a Ugandan fighter who has only fought in Europe a handful of times qualifies for a shot at any "Europe" based title) though our conclusion is that the IBF are taking the title movement to the next, obvious direction.
We here at weirdboxing would like to congratulate the IBF on their announcement of a new series of belts including:
The IBF North/South Europe title
The IBF North/West Europe title
The IBF North/East Europe title
The IBF South/West Europe title
The IBF South/East Europe title
And of course the IBF "only certain parts of Europe but feel free to pay our sanctioning fees and we'll let you fight for it anyway title", sure it's not a catchy title but it'll do for now!
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