Championship titles will mean ZERO if the WBA follows through and sanctions Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for any kind of a belt

Jake Paul is a social media influencer turned boxer. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is the son of one of the sport's legends, and despite a checkered history, a former world champion himself.

Neither man, though, should be anywhere near fighting for a championship these days. Sadly, though, that may happen regardless.

On Sunday, WBA president Gilberto Mendoza floated the idea on X of a title fight between Paul and Chavez. The tweet should have come as a shock given it was out of nowhere. Sadly, though, the president of the WBA doesn't understand the harm he does to the sport he loves, the organization he leads and himself personally when he says this like this:

Now, he didn't say world title, but neither Paul nor Chavez Jr. has done anything to merit fighting for any sort of a boxing championship. For belts to mean something, there has to be significance around them, and putting them in the ring together would be nothing less than a money grab.

Who knows what Paul will turn into eventually if he keeps boxing? He's not very good now, but he has had one amateur fight and just 11 professional bouts. He's beaten former UFC champions, so that says something for him. And he's putting in the work in the gym, away from the spotlight.

But one of the reason that so many are so frustrated with Paul is his habit of calling out fighters much smaller than he is; much older than he is; and not boxers.

Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, revealed after his June 29 victory over Suna Akale in Miami that he'd declined an offer from Paul for a fight. Ali Walsh is 11-1 as a pro and had a handful of amateur bouts. Paul is 10-1 with that one amateur bout. But Ali Walsh weighed 157 for each of his last two bouts. Paul weighed 200 -- and had to strip naked to make that weight -- for his July 20 stoppage of Mike Perry.

You need no better example than the fact that Paul is going to fight, or is at least scheduled to fight 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Nov. 15 in Arlington, Texas.

He predicted after his win over Perry that within two years he'll be cruiserweight champion. He's working hard and has good people around him, so he's doing it the right way. He doesn't look like he has world title potential, but he has a big name and if he makes strides, the sanctioning bodies will be falling all over themselves to have him fight for one of their belts.

Now, whatever belt Mendoza plans to present in the event there is eventually a Paul-Chavez Jr. bout would be done based ZERO on accomplishment and 100 percent on the WBA president's desire to be bask in the glow of that event.

Chavez Jr. is arguably the biggest screw-up in modern boxing, and he's made missing weight an art form. He was dreadful in a decision over former UFC fighter Uriah Hall in the PPV opener of the Paul-Perry card.

If Mendoza wants to give a belt to those two, God bless him. But it will mean nothing, and the WBA will just become an even bigger laughingstock to boxing fans who pay attention.

I know, and more importantly, Mendoza knows, that there aren't enough of those who do. It's what he's banking on.

It's ridiculous, though, to try to foist this upon the public. If the Paul-Tyson fight does happen, he needs to start facing legitimate talent after that if he wants to make a title run. Everything he says and everything he does except for one major thing suggests he's serious about becoming a legitimate world champion.

His choice of opponents is laughably inept. You can't keep fighting non-boxers or guys who would struggle with The Three Stooges if you want to be taken seriously.

Maybe Paul doesn't care if he's taken seriously, because he's created a money-making business and he can use it to promote his products.

But the sport of boxing suffers when non-entities like these two are given championship shots.

Sadly, though, that's the state of boxing in the 21st century.