Jose Sulaiman Says Chavez-Rubio Not Approved Yet

In a weird bit of news today, Jose Sulaiman posted on Boxing Scene that the WBC hadn't received a formal petition for the fight between Marco Antonio Rubio and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

"The governing WBC Rules and Regulations require a written formal petition for the sanctioning of any official WBC bout before a formal announcement takes place and ticket sales start. As of this date, the WBC has not received any communication from any promoter concerning a Chavez versus Rubio fight. The WBC therefore does not endorse and disapproves any public announcement or ticket sales suggesting that the WBC has sanctioned the fight, or using the WBC name or trademarks until there is full compliance with the WBC Rules and Regulations."

It seems that this would be just a formality, but then why put out a very public statement denouncing the promoters of the fight? The WBC is not allergic to money and they will definitely approve of this fight, even if Sergio Martinez and Lou DiBella have big issues with the matchup. Maybe Jose got angry at the official fight poster which features the words "World Midldeweight Championship" on it and felt it necessary to admonish Bob Arum and Top Rank. Yet the WBC's name does not appear on the poster at all, so I wouldn't think that anyone would mistakenly think that the WBC was sponsoring the main event. Again this whole situation is simply strange.

I don't think that the WBC would ever not approve of a fight between Rubio and Chavez Jr, because there is too much money on the line for the WBC. Also it is in their best interests financially to keep Chavez Jr. happy so he keeps defending his title and keeps generating hefty sanctioning fees. This really is just something that is strange, which I guess is business as usual for the WBC. It's been a strange week for the WBC...