WBC (World Boxing Council) President Mauricio Sulaiman took the kind of action a solid organization leader should by dropping “Hammerin” Hank Lundy, ranked No. 4 in the WBC ratings from the ratings!

“Lundy was placed in a tournament by the WBC in the lightweight division and he has been closely associated to the WBC and his promoter Jimmy Birchfield who has worked very hard to have him successful in boxing,” said Sulaiman.

On December 30th which happened to be Sulaiman’s 46th birthday the No. 1 ranked Venezuela’s Jorge “Golden Boy” Linares now living in Japan won the vacated title of Omar “Panterita” Figueroa of Texas (who is in recess due to medical reasons) by knocking out the No. 2 contender Javier Prieto of Mexico in 4 rounds in Japan. The No. 3 contender is Dejan Zlaticanin of Montenegro who holds the WBC International title. Lundy is ranked No. 4 and was to meet Russian Petr “Zar”Petrov who is the No. 2 WBA and No. 7 WBO contender and who won the ESPN Boxcino tournament in 2014.

“Yesterday’s action is not acceptable. The WBC will suspend Lundy and will not rate him until he provides a medical examination by a specialist determines the division he can compete. This is necessary for his safety as well as to protect the public and fans from fights falling apart at the last minute,” said Sulaiman.

Lundy who is 3-3 in his last six fights dropped back to back title fights starting with Ray Beltran for the NABF lightweight title and then Viktor Postol for the WBC International super lightweight title. He then won three straight before losing to Thomas Dulorme in his last fight for the NABF super lightweight title on December 6th. So 31 days later Lundy agreed to drop down to the lightweight limit of 135 on a nine-day notice in an ESPN2 main event. Word is he knew Tuesday he was having problems making weight. Was this another blunder by his promoter Birchfield’s part on taking this fight?

In a hearing in 2014 Lundy’s manager Ivan Cohen was blamed for preventing Lundy from a title fight though it was Birchfield who put Lundy in the Beltran fight blowing his top rating not Cohen. They can’t blame Cohen for this one. Cohen is a well-respected boxing person from Philadelphia who guided Buster Drayton to the IBF light middleweight championship.

Please send all questions and comments to Ken Hissner at: Kenhissner@gmail.com