While the eyes of the boxing public remained firmly fixed on Saturday’s undisputed showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, something extremely bizarre developed elsewhere, starting with Frank Martin’s claim yesterday that the WBA had instituted a rehydration clause for his June 15th lightweight title fight against Gervonta Davis.
Davis (29-0, 27 KO) took to Twitter to deny any involvement, while Errol Spence Jr claimed it was a new WBA rule and Dan Rafael claimed that while the WBA was planning to institute fight day weight checks, that wouldn’t be in effect for Davis vs Martin (18-0, 12 KO). WBA chief Gilberto Mendoza then told Chris Mannix that there would be a “12-pound rehydration limit” based on “recent events.” Mendoza did not elaborate on what those events may be and The Ring’s Jake Donovan claimed to have heard from “more than two dozen fighters/teams who have WBA sanctioned fights coming up” without a single one reporting a rehydration clause.
Featherweight champion Raymond Ford, who meets Nick Ball on June 1st, said “Hell no” when asked if he had a rehydration clause and vowed to enter the ring at 160 pounds.
Finally, Donovan chimed back in to report that there had been a rehydration clause, but the WBA “agreed to table it.” As far as I can tell, that’s the end of it for now; Davis and Martin should be able to pump themselves back up to their hearts’ content.
I’ve said it before, but stuff like this is why the WBA’s brand of incompetence and corruption is better than the WBC’s. At least theirs tends to be the fun kind of sh*tshow.