Heavyweight Samuel Peter of Las Vegas thought he had reason to celebrate a WBC title shot after beating James Toney in two title-elimination bouts. Photo by The Associated Press

Anybody who made the tiresome, usually futile Target-to-Wal-Mart-to-Circuit City-to-Best Buy-to-eBay search for a PlayStation 3 or Wii over the holidays understands the concept of premium pricing better than most.

You want something in short supply with high demand and you're going to pay -- dearly -- to get it.

That same concept is why boxers so willingly have given their money to sanctioning bodies for the right to compete for a world title. There are a lot more boxers than there are championship belts and, for some reason, boxers still covet the belts.

Samuel Peter has paid in excess of $100,000 to the WBC simply for the right to earn a chance at the title. He hasn't been in a championship fight, but willingly, perhaps eagerly, paid the WBC twice for the right to fight in title-elimination bouts.

Peter, a Las Vegas resident who has lost once in 29 bouts, defeated James Toney in both of them.

But all that money and risk have gotten Peter, however, is a credential for the next WBC title bout, which will happen in April in Russia when Oleg Maskaev defends the belt against Vitali Klitschko.

Klitschko announced Wednesday he was ending a 14-month retirement to seek a shot at the title. And there's no doubt he will get it, despite the real likelihood of legal action from Peter.

The reason is simple: 3 percent of Klitschko's purse -- the amount a fighter must pay as a sanction fee -- will be significantly greater than 3 percent of Peter's.

And that's why WBC president Jose Sulaiman will grant Klitschko the bout against Maskaev while promising Peter he will get a shot at the winner.

It's legalized extortion, and the government needs to stop it. An addendum has to be added to the federal Ali Act to prevent sanctioning bodies from charging for title eliminators because they're abused so frequently.

Humberto Soto won a WBC super featherweight eliminator Aug. 12, which he thought earned him a shot at champion Marco Antonio Barrera. Imagine Soto's shock when the WBC announced it would sanction the Nov. 18 bout between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales as an eliminator and when it approved Juan Manuel Marquez to fight Barrera for the belt March 17.

What's wrong with that?

For one, Soto paid for a title shot, which he's not getting. Two, Pacquiao and Morales publicly said they didn't want their bout to be an eliminator because they didn't want to pay a sanction fee.

Three, Morales had lost his prior two bouts and three of his previous four entering the Nov. 18 fight, so his qualification for a title shot was dubious at best. Four, Marquez is a featherweight who hasn't fought at super featherweight since 2003 and only four times in a career that began in 1993.

Time is of the essence for fighters because their careers are so short and the risk of injury so high. If Klitschko gets the fight, what does the WBC do for Peter if, say, he tears a rotator cuff in training while he's waiting and his career suddenly ends?

Peter isn't a big draw and doesn't have the fan base Klitschko has, so he'll make more holding a title than he would without one.

Klitschko is one of the few boxers who is bigger than the belts -- joining men such as Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Bernard Hopkins -- who will earn the same purse regardless of whether a championship is at stake.

There are far greater problems facing the country than the salaries of boxers, but because Sen. John McCain has again introduced a bill that would create a federal agency to regulate the sport, Sen. Harry Reid should use his influence to make sure the bill contains two critical provisions.

It should ban the use of eliminators. Because the organizations are required by the Ali Act to fairly rate fighters, they've determined their No. 1 contenders, so there is no need to require a boxer to pay for something that is already decided.

Any federal bill also should limit the sanction fee to 2 percent of a fighter's purse and should fine the bodies double the amount of a sanction fee if a fighter is arbitrarily stripped of a title.

Peter has paid the premium for a title shot. Like the guy who dropped $10,000 on eBay this past Christmas for a PlayStation 3, he should get what he paid for.

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