According to multiple reports, Joshua Clottey of Ghana has officially relinquished his IBF Welterweight (147 lbs.) title. His planned unification bout against Miguel Cotto on June 13 at the Madison Square Garden in New York will now be for the WBO title only.
Clottey never intended to relinquish his title as he signed the contract before the deadline imposed by the IBF to make it a unification bout. Unfortunately, Cotto did not sign the contract on time. Despite an appeal by Clottey to the IBF to reconsider since it was not his fault that the deadline was not met, the IBF still stripped him of his title. There was pressure also from the handlers of mandatory challenger Isaac Hlatshwayo of South Africa which gave the IBF no choice. Hlatshwayo will most probably fight Rafal Jackiewicz of Poland for the now vacant title.
Cotto probably wasn't aware that his delay cost them the IBF belt. But, if Cotto was fully aware then he probably did not want the IBF title in the first place. The IBF will mandate him to defend against Hlatshwayo if he defeats Clottey. Obviously, Hlatshwayo is not financially appealing to Cotto. Who cares about a fight against Hlatshwayo if there's Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley or Floyd Mayweather Jr. among the possibilities?
Anyway, with Ghana losing one title, they're down to 1. Here's the updated list.
As of Apr. 17, 2009
Rank | Country | No. of Titles | Title Holders |
1st | USA | 10 |
|
2nd | Mexico | 9 |
|
3rd | Puerto Rico | 7 |
|
4th | Ukraine | 5 |
|
5th (3 are tied) | Armenia | 4 |
|
5th (3 are tied) | Japan | 4 |
|
5th (3 are tied) | Panama | 4 |
|
8th (2 are tied) | Argentina | 3 |
|
8th (2 are tied) | Philippines | 3 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | Hungary | 2 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | Poland | 2 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | Romania | 2 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | Thailand | 2 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | UK | 2 |
|
10th (6 are tied) | Venezuela | 2 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Colombia | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Denmark | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Germany | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Ghana | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Indonesia | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Italy | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Nicaragua | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Russia | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | South Africa | 1 |
|
16th (10 are tied) | Uzbekistan | 1 |
|
bro where is pacquiao ring magazine 140lbs...you forgot to talled!!
ReplyDeleteActually bro, the blog entry I posted in the Pacland forum thread where you came from refers to the Clottey IBF stripping and that's dated Apr 17. I just gave the direct link to this entry because that thread was talking about the possible Pacquiao-Cotto fight. Since it was Apr 17, the tally in that entry is outdated.
ReplyDeleteIf you click on the most recent post then you'll find the latest tally. Anyway, here's the url:
http://boxing-titles.blogspot.com/
That will give you all the blog entries in reverse sequential order.
I post a new blog entry whenever there are title fights and also an entry every Wednesday for the coming weekend's scheduled title fights.