Letter to Dmitry Pirog

10FEB11 Letter to Dmitry Pirog Warning (2)

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO VIEW THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

February 10, 2012
Champion Dmitry Pirog
C/O Banner Promotions

On July 31, 2010 Dmitry Pirog became the WBO Middleweight Champion with a TKO 5 over Daniel Jacobs. As he won a vacant title, he had 180 days until his Mandatory due date of January 31, 2011. However, due to his inactivity, Dmitry was given the opportunity to do a Voluntary bout on March 26, 2011 against Javier Francisco Maciel with a UD12 win. Some 14 (fourteen) months later, on September 25, 2011 Mr. Pirog was successful by RTD 10 with his Mandatory defense against Gennady Martirosyan.

As recently as February 3, 2012, Mr. Pirog made statements to Alexey Sukachev in an article printed by www.BoxingScene.com
http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id=49218#ixzz1lypqvmNZ
“Pirog Waits for the Champs, Considers Possible Retirement”
Dmitry Pirog will seriously consider retirement if a bout with one of the middleweight stars isn’t secured in the near future. Pirog (19-0, 15 KOs), 31, the reigning undefeated WBO middleweight champion of the world, was featured as a hero during a specifically designated press conference to honor him as the best Kuban sports person in 2011 (Kuban is a huge river in southern Russia, a native land for Pirog). The media meeting took place in Krasnodar, just near his hometown of Gelendzhik.
“The gap of time between my last title defense (against Gennady Martirosyan), and the next one, has definitely been too long. The reason is that negotiations with possible opponents are just under way. They started immediately after I stopped Martirosyan and they are still ongoing I’ve raised the standard rather high and I don’t want to let anybody – myself, my team or the fans – down. Yes, I’m looking for the unification, I need it badly! I wish to meet other champions in the ring to unify all of the belts in the division. That’s what I want! It’s a risky business, you know, and it’s a bit unusual for modern titlists to issue such challenges. Modern champs are interested in earning easy money; they want to fight on TV against safe, barely live opponents, to score meaningless victories. I have never put any accent on earning money in boxing. I don’t need it that bad as I have some. Maybe that’s the secret of my success – I fight only to prove myself and I’m ready to risk. I’m prepared to fight the best of the division: Sergio Martinez (The Ring), Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (WBC), Daniel Geale (IBF) and Felix Sturm (WBA). But for various reasons those fights are out of reach. Those guys don’t want any part of me”.

– Why so?
“Chavez Jr. is the son of the legend, and he is well protected to speak frankly. They put him against those guys, who are quite popular but who are definitely over the hill at the time of their fights with the kid.
We tried to reach a deal with Sergio Martinez. I have personally flown to America. The people with Team Martinez said to me that he doesn’t want to fight such a clever boxer like myself. It’s understandable: if he loses, he will lose a whole lot of opportunities on HBO.
Geale is very much like me. He also struggles to get along with HBO or Showtime; the American cable giants aren’t too interested in him. They are monsters, they have all the money. Geale is fairly known in America, I’m a bit popular in Russia. I was ready to fight him in Australia but he again chose not to take the risk…
There’s no response from Sturm as well. He is supported by a well-known German TV channel. There were rumors the cable chiefs wanted Sturm to take a risk, to fight dangerous opponents, and my name has also been thrown in the mix, and I was ready to fight abroad but…
I’m not here to earn money. I’m here for the love of the sport. I will tell you one thing; I have never told it anyone beforehand… I’m not excluding the possibility of retirement if none of the champions will fight me. I’m ready to hang’em up if I will be limited to the present level of opposition. I’m fully sure I can make a bigger impact – not as a boxer – but in another role.
I have thought much about it and I feel that I’m very disappointed with modern prizefighting. It’s all about earning money, and I don’t want any part of it. For me boxing is a sport, and I won’t go against my beliefs”. Now, the WBO has been advised by his USA Promoter, Banner Promotions, that a date sometime in May is being looked at. As there is no contract, no actual fight date, and no TV commitment, this might extend itself beyond the month of May. Note that in 19 (nineteen) months, the title has been defended twice.

According to the World Boxing Organization’s Regulations of World Championship Contests Section 5 Defense of Title

“SECTION 5 DEFENSE OF THE TITLE”

(a) Each WBO World Champion except in the Heavyweight Division shall defend his title at intervals not greater than nine (9) months counting from the date of the acquisition thereof or from the last compulsory defense …

(c) The WBO World Championship Committee may, in its discretion, vacate a Champion’s title regardless of cause or fault if the Champion fails to defend his title within a nine (9) month period (12 months in the case of the Heavyweight Division)… complied with the WBO and ABC rating criteria.”

Also see “Section 20 Procedure When a Title is Declared Vacant
“…When a boxer obtains the World Championship Title or an Interim World Championship title in any category in a fight for a vacant title, he shall defend the title against the Mandatory Challenger within a term which shall not exceed one hundred and eighty (180) days counting from the date he acquired the title.”

Bearing in mind Mr. Pirog’s inactivity, having fought only twice in a 19 (nineteen) month period, he is treading very close to violating the WBO Regulations of World Championship Contests. Therefore, we are submitting Champion Pirog to the WBO Championship Committee for evaluation and determination and this letter will be posted on our website www.wboboxing.com in the internet.

Sincerely,
Francisco Valcarcel, Esq.