WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman has confirmed that if Jake Paul wins his upcoming bout against Tommy Fury on February 26 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, the WBC Ratings Committee will rank him in the Cruiserweight division. Jake Paul has been close to the WBC for several years, starting with the first event promoted in the UK when his brother, Logan, fought KSI; On that night Jake won the WBC amateur belt in the undercard fights.
“Jake has dedication and respect to the sport and the WBC will not tolerate discrimination against anyone. He deserves the opportunities that any other boxer has,” said Sulaiman. “He demonstrated punching power and improved skills as well as a solid chin, Tommy Fury represents a clear challenge to Paul in a battle of two undefeated professional boxers.
“Jake has enrolled in VADA testing Clean Boxing Program, yet another strong reason to support his stance as a boxer.”
In the co-feature, WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu will fight former champion Badou Jack. the event will be broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN+ PPV and in UK throught BT Sport Box Office
First of all we all know that the WBC has become the laughing stock of all belts a long time ago. Second, I’m happy that someone like Jake Paul can create such a buzz in the sport whether you love him or hate him he deserves respect from what he’s done. If JP wins which I am sure he is, I hope he fights for the cruiserweight belt by the end of the year…
He doesn’t deserve respect. You can choose to give it to him if you insist.
I give Jake Paul all the credit in the world for his ability to market himself. With that, anyone who supports the WBC should be required to be tested for pugilistica dementia.
yee
The WBC are responsible for the decade of Floyd hustling boxing fans out of competitive fights that counted. No surprise these maggots are cosying up to Jake Paul as he is solely a product of the weakest fan base boxing has ever witnessed courtesy of Floyd and white corrupt US television executives. Nothing funnier than Floydy’s complaints of Bud and Spence ducking each other. Irony
“white corrupt US television executives”
TV executives are not White, idiot.
Will Tommy Fury even show up?
I would be surprised if he did
Mauricio Sulaiman has no idea what he’s talking about, does he?
I hope they were holding the microphone to his ass for this interview, because that’s clearly where he was talking from. Just an absolute load of BS. From the articles he posts on this site, you’d think this guy was on some sort of moral high ground, but clearly he’s not. The sport would be so much better off without people like him and these alphabet groups.
I can’t believe your comment was allowed. Fightnews has become Sulaiman’s personal blog.
What an absolute JOKE!!! If he wins this fight it’ll be the first boxer he’s fought and that somehow warrants a ranking?? Pathetic. We all know everything is all about money over integrity, but this is ridiculous. Imagine Jack Jagoff Paul as the WBC champ. The division is pretty week right now. It’s not like he’d have to beat a Huck, Jirov, Toney, Holyfield, Lebedev, RJJ and so on.
Paul has beaten a collection of washed up athletes from other sports, and now is fighting Tommy Fury, whose opponents combined record is 24-176-5, and a win here is enough net Paul a ranking.
I just don’t care enough to do the research, but for the hard-core boxing fans here….has there been any boxer, from any era…adjusting for inflation and all…who has made more money in their first 6 fights than Jake Paul has? I’m guessing not. Crazy to think of some of the past Olympians…Ali, Foreman, Bowe, Holyfield, etc who came up the hard way probably don’t come close to Paul when it comes to earnings at this point in their careers. The shamelessly corrupt WBC sees this and will now stick a totally undeserving Paul in their ratings because of it. Says Mauricio Suliaman, “Jake has dedication and respect to the sport and the WBC will not tolerate discrimination against anyone. He deserves the opportunities that any other boxer has”. WTF does that even mean?? It’s a money grab from that gigantic phallus Mauricio Suliaman. This sport desperately needs some sort of oversight. It’s just way beyond ridiculous at this point.
Well, Mcgregor did take in 100 million in his one and only peo boxing match against Mayweather, so theres that lol
Good call. Forgot about him, but Jake would certainly be up there. Wonder how much $$$ KSI has pulled in so far in his celebrity boxing career? I’m sure Mauricio has an eye on it…
JP only gets as much credit for me as via Boxrec. If he is ranked in the 300’s at Cruiser currently and beats little Fury than at best he gets into top 200. This is also because Cruiser has people going up to HW and it has less amount of fighters than other weight classes. You can’t argue that JP would be ranked any percentile higher than Nico Ali Walsh for example down at Middleweight…
WBC loves doing this garbage-wherever there is hype- the WBC will be there.
Title shot in the works and probably for some made up dummy belt, what will the name be? WBC “Platinum YouTuber” Belt
Sure. Why not..
It’s normal to rank him if he beats a ranked fighter..
“Jake has dedication and respect to the sport and the WBC will not tolerate discrimination against anyone”
– But you discriminate against all Russian fighters (except for Bivol) because of the war in Ukraine.
– Stop with the double-talk.
A joke right?
Jake Paul to pay for a WBC ranking. Fixed it!
The WBC continue to rush along disgracing itself in a dash for rock bottom. Theyre pretty much already there.
This is really Pauls first pro fight and typically you dont get ranked for that especially when hos opponent has no rank himself. Honestly, most likely Paul will get knocked out in this fight anyhow but leave it to the WBC to continue its campaign of self destruction running its organization as a clown show
Jake Paul has more dedication and goes into his fights better prepared than a lot of boxers out there, give him his due. And he does draw more fans to the sport of boxing. If he deserves to be highly ranked is another question.
Boxing ratings have always fallen on hype. There are even times where boxers get world title shots in their first couple pro fight. That is 100% a hype based thing. Vasyl Lomachenko as a pro got a title match in his first fight then rated for a world title, but lost. Then even though he was 1-1 gets another shot at the newly vacated title and wins. Those are WBO titles, but it shows HYPE is a draw factor and these title shots are sometimes awarded to people who have a story, can sell tickets or offer exciting fights. They don’t have to hit all three marks, but all the titles are guilty of milking fighters when it benefits their organization. Personally I like Jake as a fighter. He is new and is only getting huge paydays because he knows how to market himself. A lot of boxers have a fight then go into hiding until their next match. A lot of them do little to market themselves and could care less about the boxing fans. Its just a job for them and we hear little from them until they want to sell a PPV and even then we hear little from them. Id rather support a boxer who is interacting with fans, updating them on possible upcoming matches and in some cases telling us the back up plan if their opponent backs out in the last second.
every time you think boxing is at its lowest point with stuff like this we see its not yet hit bottom. The WBC is so corrupt and this lying scamster has a golden tongue. His father helped Leonard get the win over Hagler and don’t get me started on Mayweather, the self proclaimed GOAT…gag. Just like Nazi Josef Goebbles said, if you lie to the people often enough and for long enough they will eventually believe you. That’s Floyds and Trumps playbook and people are stupid enough to believe them
You did so well in the first part of the post but then you had to turn MSNBC on. By the way, the Nazis and the Soviets colluded. That brainwashing was started by Karl Marx long before there were ever any Nazis. You may want to think of that before you keep supporting socialism.
Jimbo, has inflation caused you to miss some meds?
This announcement tells you exactly where the former sport of boxing is today. And it did it all to itself.
This is totally embarrassing for the WBC. If Jake Paul wants to fight a real contender or two, sure, he deserves a ranking. But that hasn’t happened yet.
so wait a World championship fight is on the under card to a youtuber? WTF and if he beats his first ever pro boxer he gets ranked? why Tommy Fury isnt currently ranked by the WBC just not understanding Sellout Suilamans logic
All rankings are pretty much meaningless these days with all the organizations ranking different fighters. Was much better in the days when there were eight divisions and Ring magazine ranked the top ten in each. Most sports fans were aware of most of the ranked fighters unlike today where they have lost interest in the multiple meaningless ratings.
woah that Makabu vs Jack fight gonna be a smoker! I think Jack is too old now but if this was 5 years ago Jack would have a better chance
The WBC needs Jake Paul more then anything to try and get there credibility back in way of recognition. Nothing more nothing less.
What a joke