IBF President Daryl Peoples Talks GGG’s Mandatory Schedule and The IBF’s Ranking Process

We talked with the IBF president at the Global Boxing Forum in Sochi, Russia. We asked him about mandatories, rankings, regional titles, the Middleweight title picture, unifications, and more.

Gleb Kuzin:

Let’s start with the question everyone wants answered: Why does the IBF not have #1 Ranked Fighters?

Daryl Peoples:

In the IBF we like to have elimination bouts, so we have the number #1 and the number #2 positions unranked until we find the two highest available contenders to fight for the number #1 position. Once you win an eliminator for #1 or #2 that makes you eligible to be a mandatory contender and fight for the championship.

GK:

In the case of a unified champion, how do you decide against whose mandatory contender a champion should defend first? There was a moment when Denis Lebedev had just unified the Cruiserweight division to become IBF & WBA Champion. Both you and the WBA claimed that he must defend the belt against their respective mandatory contender. He went on to fight the IBF Mandatory Contender in Murat Gassiev. Do you work out these matters yourselves or let the promoters come to a conclusion?

DP:

When we go to the unification bout I will talk to the president of the other organisations and whoever’s organisation mandatory is the longest standing we allow them to go first and then we have a rotation system set up amongst all of the organisations.

GK:

Last summer Terrence Crawford and Julius Indongo fought to unify all four belts. You allowed it to happen despite Lipinets’ team calling for Indongo to be stripped.

DP:

Well, in our rules because we think unifications are good for the sport and good for the fans, our rules provide that if a boxer is going to try to unify the title, the unification fight will take precedence over the mandatory. It’s good for boxing but sometimes our mandatory contenders get to a position where he might not be able to get his mandatory shot in the nine months that we typically offer the champion to defend the title.

GK:

What about the situation around the Middleweight Championship? We have Jermall Charlo as the WBC Mandatory Contender, Sergiy Derevyanchenko as the IBF Mandatory Contender, and Ryota Murata as the WBA Mandatory Contender. What does the future hold for the division?

DP:

Well, GGG has only one more belt to capture so unfortunately it’s rough to be a middlweight right now but if memory serves me correctly, I think after this bout[Canelo Rematch] he’s going to try to unify with Billy Joe Saunders. If he does not, I believe the WBA’s mandatory is the next.

GK:

So you decide between yourselves who will go first.

DP:

Yes, if the WBA Mandatory Challenger has been waiting longer than mine or the WBC Challenger, we’ve all agreed that the WBA should go first.

GK:

What will your Mandatory Challenger be doing in the meantime? He won’t be able to get his title shot until the middle of 2019 at earliest.

DP:

Roughly! And it’s looking like it might be that long! The good thing about it is Gennady fights a lot. He’s a very active champion so the line will move pretty quickly. In the event that our mandatory contender is sitting and waiting his turn, we let him take voluntary bouts.

GK:

Whoever he chooses?

DP:

Correct.

GK:

It shouldn’t be a top-ranked IBF contender?

DP:

Hopefully he does fight someone ranked.

GK:

In the lower weight classes you tend to be the only organisation directing champions to defend against mandatory contenders (unlike how it is in the heavier weight classes where the big money is). Other organisations let it slip, but you always pursue your mandatories.

DP:

We do and that’s why there is a saying among the managers and trainers “It’s great to be the mandatory challenger for the IBF because you know you are going to get your opportunity but when you’re the champion it’s a little rougher because you know that the IBF is going to make you fight your mandatory.”

Heavyweight to mini-flyweight, except for the heavyweight’s first defence where he gets a year, all of our champions, all 17 of them have 9 months to defend. Our philosophy is this: the mini-flyweights title is just as important as the heavyweight title so we hold everyone to the same standard and it’s good for consistency. Everybody knows exactly where they stand.

GK:

Ryuchi Taguchi was recently crowned the unified IBF & WBA champion. He said that his intentions are to defend the WBA title next and then maybe to vacate the IBF title so he doesn’t have to be fighting one mandatory after another. There are better options for him: a potential all-Japan super fight against the WBC Light Flyweight Champion Ken Shiro who is going to make his mandatory defence in April. That kind of a fight is likely to land on the traditional Japanese New Year’s Eve show. What’s your take on this?

DP:

We’d love to see him defend the title but if he chooses to give it up, it will be unfortunate and then we’ll just order the leading two available contenders to fight for the vacant title.

GK:

Will you allow him some extra-time?

DP:

Well, if he decides to unify, of course. He would only need to ask for an exception.

GK:

Do you recognize Lineal Championships?

DP:

No, it’s not much of a concern to me. It’s certainly a nice accolade to have for a fighter and it brings prestige to his career but a champion is a champion. I mean, just because someone is considered a Lineal Champion doesn’t mean they get any more rights than the other champions.

GK:

What about other rankings and ratings? Do you ever consult them?

DP:

I mean from time to time, before I was the president, before I was ratings chairman, I looked to see what the other guys were doing and their thoughts on another people, but that doesn’t influence where we put fighters in our ratings.

GK:

Can you explain your process for ranking fighters? Boxing fans don’t really understand how it works. For example, it’s not as transparent as Boxrec which uses an ELO system.

DP:

Right, right. I call ratings the weird science of boxing. It’s completely subjective but some of the things that we look at primeraly is of course your win-loss record, but more importantly is the calibre of fighters that you’re fighting. And it’s a process because you need to research and research, you have to research the fighter, their opponents and often in cases you have to look at the strength of their opponents too on paper.

But when you do a little more research you learn he never fought anyone with a winning record or he’s fighting guys who are typically one weight class lower. So it’s alot of analysis and research that goes into it but at the end of the day the ratings chairman makes that decision.

GK:

So it’s just the chairman who decides how to rank fighters? It’s just his own opinion?

DP:

Right. And based on recommendations from the ratings comitee. We spread our ratings comitee out: we have at least one person on every continent and if there’s someone who’s excelling, who we need to know about, they send their recommendations to the ratings chairman and he’ll go through the evaluation process and he’ll try and find a spot for them in the ratings, if he determines that they deserve it.

GK:

Do you think it could be possible for the boxing organisations to work together in order to make their champions fight each other? To mandate them unify the belts.

DP:

We’d like to see that and of course alot of times we don’t have to force those mandatories to happen, or the unifications to happen. Promoters and managers know that unifications are what people want to see. In large part what a lot of people don’t realise is that the sanctioning organisations love unifications. We know that unifications are what fans want to see and they are good for boxing, but a lot of times contractual obligations to networks get in the way, and sometimes the promoters just don’t see eye-to-eye. We like unifications and we encourage them, but a lot of the time it’s the business aspect that prevents these unifications from happening.

GK:

So basically you choose the lesser evil — enforcing mandatories through purse bids.

DP:

Right. But we would much rather see the champion unify the title. Purse bids are becoming fewer and fewer because, unless there’s something really prohibitive like a television contract, promoters nowadays are doing a little bit better at reaching agreements.

GK:

How do you think you could raise the prestige of regional titles like NABF, but in other regions? In Europe, in Asia.

DP:

We’re doing well. We’re based in the United States but the majority of our fight activity takes place outside the US. Especially in Europe. We’re doing quite well in Europe and we’re having a lot more people fight for regional titles than we had in the past, so they’re very important. A lot of these fighters that fight for the regional titles are fighting a little bit stronger competition than some of the other fighters typically fight, so that helps them in the ratings.

GK:

A good example is the OPBF. It has succeeded in becoming a really important stage for asian prospects and contenders en route to fighting for the World Title. This is especially true in Japan where, before becoming the World Champion, their fighters try and become OPBF champions.

DP:

Yes, the OPBF is a very very strong title. In the last three years we have started to really concentrate on Asia, specifically China, the Philippines, and we have a tournament actually. In the ‘ Belt and Road tournament’ we’re trying to get newer fighters to come and hopefully the winners of the tournament will be able to get into the ratings. So we’re working a lot to try to build these regional titles and recognize some of these up-and-coming fighters.

GK:

Do you think you should be working towards raising the profile of these regional titles yourselves, or would it be better to outsource it and make people within the regions do the work?

DP:

We do and it’s part of the ratings process but matchmaking and promoting isn’t really what we do. We count on promoters to do that for us. And promoters and matchmakers there, they’re very savvy people. They watch a lot of ratings and see the movements in them and they see there’s a vacant title and if two of the fighters are ranked to fight for it, alot of the time we allow them to promote the fight. Guys are watching, they keep an eye on it.

GK:

Thank you very much.

DP:

You’re welcome.

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