Weights, Belts, Champions, Title-Holders and the kitchen sink.

On another thread I was discussing the fact that a significant majority of current title-holders are absent from the latest Fight Night game, and this (combined with the slowest of slow days at work) prompted me to look at the current slew of title-holders across the whole gamut of weight classes. Several things stood out, and I'll try to present them as concisely as I can, for ease of consumption.

First off, if we count five belts per weight class (one each per WBA,WBO,WBC,IBF & Ring) there are 85 all told, spread as they are across 17 divisions, themselves ranging from 200lbs+ down to under 105lbs. So far, this is pretty standard stuff, I know. Once we add to these all the 'Super', 'Interim' and other titles the total leaps to 104, with Middleweight having as many as seven available titles, and Featherweight a whopping EIGHT titles of one form or another up for grabs.

Between these 104 different variations of titles available there are 84 individual boxers holding one or more title each (for example Donaire, Bradley, JMM etc) and some eleven vacant titles, all of which are the Ring belts.

Only two of the seventeen weight divisions have five belts only: heavyweight and light welterweight, although Wladimir Klitschko is considered to be 'super' and 'unified' champion (WBO & IBF), and Timothy Bradley is the WBC 'unified' champ-titles which seem excessive.

The remaining fifteen weight classes have their ranks swollen with a total of an additional NINETEEN titles (separate from the standard five per class). The worst offender is the WBA, with sixteen superfluous titles, covering 'super', 'regular' (or no prefix), 'interim' and 'in recess' champion. This is where confusion arises, because in some instances (eg WW, SFW) there is no 'super' champ, only a regular one. This leads me to wonder: why bother with the 'super' part at all? Things become even worse in the featherweight division, as the WBA have BOTH 'super' and 'unified' champs, as well as a regular champion. I understand that Gamboa is the unified champ as he possesses both the WBA & IBF belts, but if that's the case, what makes Chris John the WBA super champion?!? Likewise, if both these guys are 'better' types of champion than Jonathan Victor Barros, why bother calling him a champion at all?

The WBO has a couple of 'interim' champs (at LHW & light flyweight), and the WBC has one 'in recess', Elio Rojas at featherweight. However, all of this is without taking into account the 'diamond' belts held by people like JCC jr.

As if all of this wasn't enough to make the sport of boxing seem more and more like a pantomime, I THEN discovered that for Martinez-Dzinziruk will be for the ridiculous WBC diamond belt. There I was thinking that Martinez had already won the WBC MW belt from Pavlik, when in fact it had been awarded to Zbik in January when the WBC 'elevated' Martinez to their 'emeritus' champion!! Having been stripped of his WBO MW belt, Martinez will now be fighting Dzinziruk for a belt that was created in 2009 "as an honorary championship exclusively to award the winner of a historic fight between two high-profile boxers". So Martinez, despite having beaten the 'man' at 160, now holds neither of the belts he won, despite being neither inactive nor active in a different weight class, although he IS recognised as the Ring champion!

I know I've gone a bit OTT with the ranting here, but once I'd scraped the surface I was amazed by just how ridiculous this sport's governing bodies have become. The prestige once symbolised by the world championship belts has been utterly devalued and diluted, and the governing bodies are no more than tragic caricatures of what they should be. As a final word on the subject I then discovered this little gem on Wikipedia:

"In early 1998, Roy Jones, Jr. announced that he was relinquishing his WBC World Light Heavyweight Championship. In response, the organization ordered a bout between German contender Graciano Rocchigiani and former champion Michael Nunn to fill the vacancy, sanctioning it as a world championship match.

On March 21, 1998 Rocchigiani won the fight and a WBC belt; in the subsequent WBC rankings, he was listed as "Light-Heavyweight World Champion." Jones, however, had a change of heart and asked if the WBC would reinstate him as the champion. In a move that violated nearly a dozen of its own regulations, the WBC granted the reinstatement. Rocchigiani received a letter from the WBC advising that the publishing of his name as champion was a typographical error, and he had never really been the official titleholder."

That this could even be considered, let alone implemented, makes a mockery of fans and fighters alike.

If you've read this far; thanks. Apologies for going on quite so much!!

To unify a division these days, the boxer would need to win about 6 world titles. Bet it makes all them fighters who came close to winning a title but didn't quite make it physically sick. Fighters like Bruno and Walcott must have been brave lads, 'Hey hun, I'm off to fight Joe Louis and Ezzard Charles a total of 4 times, before finishing it of with two more against Charles and a double header against Rocky Marciano'. Bruno for his sins had to lock horns with Witherspoon, Tyson twice, Lennox Lewis, etc.

Puts Victor Ortiz's career in perspective. To be fair, two title fights against Maidana and Berto isn't in keeping with modern times. Just wait for a no mark interim to show up, after 15 fights, win at home on a dodgy decision and consistantly duck the top brass in the division.

Having never fought but am able sing the tune of "Walking in a Hatton Wonderland", will the WBC award me a spurious title in some hitherto unheard of division?

"Dear Jose, please will you fix it for me to be a Champion. I would like a nice shiny one if possible but am not really too fussed as I have no intention of defending it at any stage! Yours in hope, Dave aged nearly 40"

"Now zen, now zen..your dear Uncle Jose has worked ees magic and got zees man a belt. Errerurerer!!!!!!!!!"

It's hard for either the fighters or sanctioning bodies to come out of this age of proliferated titles in a positive light. The bodies treat the fighters with disdain, the fighters treat the bodies with contempt, a viscious circle is created and round and round we go.

I imagine many greats of yesteryear would have shuddered at the though of Michael Moorer, in 1992, vacating the WBO Heavyweight title on the grounds that it was (and I quote) "retarding his career", the actions of Roy Jones Jr mentioned above and also a similar stunt by Riddick Bowe in 1995, when he vacated the title in June of that year before requesting reinstatement in October and, naturally, getting his own way.

The organizations and fighters have simply been letting each other get away with this sort of nonsense for too long. Even fighters as great as Pacquiao, Mayweather, Chavez and Hopkins can never be world champions in the sense that Henry Armstrong or Joe Louis were; they're merely WBC, WBA, IBF champions and so on.

88Chris05 wrote:Even fighters as great as Pacquiao, Mayweather, Chavez and Hopkins can never be world champions in the sense that Henry Armstrong or Joe Louis were; they're merely WBC, WBA, IBF champions and so on.

That's the thing: in the current day and age we rarely have 'champions' in the traditional sense of the word-all we have instead are 'title-holders'.

Hopkins was Middleweight champ.

88Chris05 wrote:. Even fighters as great as Pacquiao, Mayweather, Chavez and Hopkins can never be world champions in the sense that Henry Armstrong or Joe Louis were; they're merely WBC, WBA, IBF champions and so on.

Absolutely Chris.

Is Boxing such a complex sport ? 8 divisions 8 champions its as easy as that.

Before long we'll fights for the diamond "British" belt, the vacant council estate belt so on and so on.

No wonder non fanatics don't see boxing the same way any more.

Cheers

Rodders

The title 'world champion' is next to worthless now, and I think that's tragic. The current situation around Sergio Martinez has baffled me. He beat Pavlik and yet now possesses neither of the two belts he won. The relatively hardcore fans know that Martinez is hot property, but that's all. Why the WBO stripped him I find preposterous. Surely it'd be better business sense to have your belt known as the one held by the 'genuine' champion than to have it bandied around like car keys at a swingers night.

I think the the different bodies - especially the WBC and WBA are doing us a favour in the long run by continuing to churn out so many ridiculous titles. Its probably only a matter of time before the WBO and IBF follow suit and then we will truly have a situation where belts are meaningless and as such fans dont recognise them full stop. Even the one that do will find it too confusig to follow.

Once that hppens hopefully a real solution will be found and something like the ring title will be the only title recognised.

I can see where you're coming from with that idea Manos, but it seems a little extreme all the same, having to let things grind to a halt before attempting a solution. Sadly I wouldn't bet against you being right.

BALTIMORA wrote:I can see where you're coming from with that idea Manos, but it seems a little extreme all the same, having to let things grind to a halt before attempting a solution. Sadly I wouldn't bet against you being right.

If you imagine the WBO and IBF introducing silver belts and regular belts etc then like the John/Gamboa situation now in the WBA or the Martinez WBC situation - people arent even going to know who holds the various belts let alone who is the real champion. When this happens I can see people just ignoring the whole nightmare of the sanctionig bodies and simply recognising the Ring champion as the authentic champion and paying no attention to the rest. Some people do it now anyway but while the WBC/WBA/WBO/IBF are seriously devalued, they still count for something with the majority of fans. Once they cease to be recognsed in entirity due to the shambolic system in place then I think fans will simply refer to the Ring rather than delve through this whole silver/diamond/unified/regular/super headache which isnt worth anything to begin with.

I don't disagree that that type of scenario could very realistically force the current four main bodies out of the picture and usher in a new era of more valid recognition for champions, but I do fear that before things could 'come good' again we'd be hearing the death knell of this sport.

It is indeed a joke
I have to think that guys like Charley Burley and Georgie Abrams would be turning in their graves looking at the current scene
If anyone is any good with stats perhaps they could work out how many titles Henry Armstrong would have held if we transport August 22nd 1938 to the current date?

Well assuming that Armstrong would have beaten 'the man' at each weight, surely we'd have to assume that as being equivalent to what, say having two of the main four plus the ring belt, at least? Of course, that's assuming the sanctioning bodies would allow him to fight in unifications and not their names-in-a-hat mandatories. Which they wouldn't. Then of course we'd have the bodies stripping him of belts held in divisions other than the last one he fought in. THEN he'd no doubt be stripped so that the cash cow could fight for that particular belt against some undeserving faded name. So, in the end he'd probably end up being Ring champ in one division, and 'champion emeritus-in-recess super spangly bling-bling turbo edition' in a couple others...