I've come to the conclusion that pretty much anything with a three-letter acronym is bad for boxing.

The IBF, with its disgusting machinations to strip Juan Manuel Marquez of his featherweight championship, does for boxing what Monica Lewinsky did for Bill Clinton. It's just a lot seamier.

The WBA has come up with legal extortion. When a fighter who holds one of its belts wins another sanctioning body's title, the WBA declares that man a "super champion," then sanctions another fight for its "regular" title, thus finding a way to get two sanction fees in the same weight class.

It ought to be banned from doing business in this country by the government-types, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who say they want to clean up boxing. If they look closely enough and ask the right questions of the right people, I'm sure they'll find more than enough in the WBA's books to keep them busy between their latest do-gooder acts.

HBO, which purports to be "the heart and soul" of boxing, ignores the truth when it is occurring right in front of its cameras. A large brawl broke out in the stands at the Rosemont Horizon on Aug. 20 at the conclusion of Fernando Vargas' less-than-stellar victory over Javier Castillejo.

It was clear that Vargas' team members were the aggressors in the fight, but HBO analyst Larry Merchant allowed Vargas, one of HBO's house fighters, to get away with saying that his crew was trying to break up the disturbance. The problem was, his crew members were more aggressive and landed far better punches against defenseless spectators than Vargas did in his waltz with Castillejo.

The WBC would have you believe it's the organization for the fighters, which, of course, is about as accurate as its rankings.

The Mexico-based sanctioning body announced earlier this week that it is "investigating" the July 1 ring death at The Orleans of Martin Sanchez, despite the fact that: A) the bout was not sanctioned by the WBC in any way; B) the WBC has no legal right to any of Sanchez's medical information; and C) there is no evidence that Sanchez's death was anything other than one of those unfortunate incidents that occasionally occur in a brutal sport such as boxing.

Sanchez's death is a tragedy that Sulaiman, who has become a millionaire from the blood of fighters, is trying to exploit. Have no doubt that if Sanchez were German or Canadian or American or French or anything other than Mexican, Sulaiman would have paid his passing scant attention.

While the WBC prepares its so-called investigation, maybe it should investigate how it stripped Castillejo of its super welterweight title because Castillejo chose to fight Vargas.

Instead, the august organization sanctioned Michele Piccirillo vs. Ricardo Mayorga for its title.

You don't think this had anything to do with the fact that Don King promotes both Mayorga and Piccirillo and holds great influence over Sulaiman, do you?

King, of course, is a master chess player. He decided he needed the WBC title, perhaps to boost what he knew was a sagging pay-per-view show, and Sulaiman willingly gave it to him.

He did so even though Mayorga had lost his last fight before fighting for the vacant "title," had lost two of his past three and had fought just once in the division.

Piccirillo, by the way, is a former welterweight champion. Since losing his IBF welterweight title to Cory Spinks, he has moved up to super welterweight. He, um, "earned" a title shot by defeating this hardly legendary group: Oscar Daniel Veliz, Ruben Dario Oliva, Paulo Alejandro Sanchez, Louis Mimoune, Stephane Taliana, Lorant Szabo and Serge Vigne.

HBO, particularly Merchant, was quick to rip the WBC's sanctioning of the Piccirillo-Mayorga fight, but not so quick to point out Vargas' goons brawling and Vargas' own poor performance. It took Vargas, who rated himself an "F," to do that.

Boxing is great at self-immolation, and this is happening in an era when some of its greatest fights are occurring and best champions are competing.

It's enough to make me want to watch soccer.

OK, it's not that bad, but it's not good.

Boxing circa 2005 is blessed with some great fights and great fighters, but what it lacks sorely are a few more honest and decent men.

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. He can be reached at 396-4428 or at kiole@reviewjournal.com.