Why One Champ Per Division Will Never Again Work

[Allucard]

There should only be one champion per division period. In Pavlik's case, if he is unable to defend the title within the calender year he should be stripped.

If a fighter is stripped on a medical then the 1 and 2 contenders shall meet to determine the new champion. Once Pavlik is able to return he should be granted an immediate bout for the title with the current champion. If Pavlik chooses tune ups instead then he will have to work his way up the rankings.

A champion must defend every 6 calender months unless medically unable. When he defends he must defend against the #1 contender, if not he will be stripped. If the #1 contender does not take the fight with the champion then he will be removed from the rankings. During this time the rest of the fighters in the rankings should be fighting eachother and jockying for position in the rankings. Extend the rankings to 25 in order to give the new kids some exposure.

If a champion fights above his weight class he will go one exemption on the 6 month defense rule. He still must defend within the calender year or be stripped. If that champion wins above his weight class and decides to pursue the championship in the next weight class he will be stripped and enter the rankings accordingly at the next weight class.

I know it's a lot but it can be done. Greed just needs to be taken away to do it.

Nice thought. I didn't give it much thought yet but this seems like a great idea!

[hiphoprap2007]

I am kind of new to boxing but I have always wondered this: why do professional boxers fight so little these days?

Pacquiao, the best boxer in the world in most people's eyes, has fought less than 10 rounds in the past year. It seems so little to me.

You hear of some boxers like Tyson Fury fighting every month or so.

I know those two boxers are in different leagues but I just wanted to know the reason why they fight so little.

[giacomino]

The first step we can all pretty agree on is to ban the sham "interim" champions. They are absolute bull**** and I suspect in at least some cases they are a way for organizations to make sure their champion can avoid fighting the top challenger in their division (Pong vs. Acre, John vs Gamboa). "Interims" often never fight regular champions: they fight their own "defenses" without getting into the ring with each other, so the organizations can milk two "champions."
One benefit of having a single champion at the lower weights is that we might see even better fights involving great Japanese fighters like Hasegawa. The JBC doesn't recognize two of the four belts, so the chances of a unification fight between champions is almost zero if one of the fighters is Japanese.

[DC Fight Fan]

The first step we can all pretty agree on is to ban the sham "interim" champions. They are absolute bull**** and I suspect in at least some cases they are a way for organizations to make sure their champion can avoid fighting the top challenger in their division (Pong vs. Acre, John vs Gamboa). "Interims" often never fight regular champions: they fight their own "defenses" without getting into the ring with each other, so the organizations can milk two "champions."
One benefit of having a single champion at the lower weights is that we might see even better fights involving great Japanese fighters like Hasegawa. The JBC doesn't recognize two of the four belts, so the chances of a unification fight between champions is almost zero if one of the fighters is Japanese.

Agreed. I also think interim champions and all of these silly minor belts are just ways for sanctioning organizations to make money off of sanctioning fees.

[cristi]

Interims are the real problem

The major problem is not to have four champions per division (WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC), the real problem is the interims titles that organizations create with no sense. Nowadays they are not even justified by an inability of the regular champ to defend his title but even if there exists a regular champion that can defend or will defend his title, they still create the interim one. And then a champion with two belts becomes the super champion, so they schedule matches for a regular championship and an interin championship. Does this make sense? So for a small country like mine (Panama) to have multiple champions is becoming less an accomplishment now than it used to be in the days of Roberto Duran, Ismael Laguna, etc. And it affects each day the fanbase of the boxing sport because it is very difficult to follow. I think that the organizations will come to realize this too late when there is no turning back.

[JakeNDaBox]

There should only be one champion per division period. In Pavlik's case, if he is unable to defend the title within the calender year he should be stripped.

If a fighter is stripped on a medical then the 1 and 2 contenders shall meet to determine the new champion. Once Pavlik is able to return he should be granted an immediate bout for the title with the current champion. If Pavlik chooses tune ups instead then he will have to work his way up the rankings.

A champion must defend every 6 calender months unless medically unable. When he defends he must defend against the #1 contender, if not he will be stripped. If the #1 contender does not take the fight with the champion then he will be removed from the rankings. During this time the rest of the fighters in the rankings should be fighting eachother and jockying for position in the rankings. Extend the rankings to 25 in order to give the new kids some exposure.

If a champion fights above his weight class he will go one exemption on the 6 month defense rule. He still must defend within the calender year or be stripped. If that champion wins above his weight class and decides to pursue the championship in the next weight class he will be stripped and enter the rankings accordingly at the next weight class.

I know it's a lot but it can be done. Greed just needs to be taken away to do it.

This is obviously the way it should be done but the question is - what governing body is available to enforce it? With boxing being a global sport, you need a worldwide committee in place to police said champions.

I've always argued that the sport should just do away with champions altogether, just rank 'em 1-10 (or 1-15 or whatever) and that the top spot is always up for grabs - meaning you have to earn the ranking and the right to keep it, not just get there and sit on a lead.

That will always remain the difference between boxing and other sports (well, besides MMA of course).

The Phillies are back in the World Series because they beat the Rockies and the Dodgers (and did enough in the regular season to make the playoffs in the first place), not because they were entitled to it based on winning last year's championship.

The NY Giants Super Bowl win two seasons ago meant nothing when the Eagles were showing them the exit in last season's playoffs, nor did it make the Eagles the new champs.

And so on...

Like I said, your idea is a sound one in practice, but it's been historically proven that without someone directly standing over a fighter to force them to face the best, there will always be those (and quite often, it's the majority of the sport) seeking to travel the path of least resistance and exploring every imaginable loophole before making the next move.

[ragingvic]

forgot vic darchinyan who has been taking on all comers.

[TheTender1]

I agree that if a fighter is inactive for over a year he should be stripped of his title. Allowing the 1 and 2 ranked fighters to face one another for the vacated belt. But they should also do away with about half the divisions. The weights are so close that fighters don't risk so much bouncing from class to class. If you took away Cruiser, SMW, JMW, JWW, JLW ... you get the point there would be more top fighters in each class with little options other than to face those in their division.

[DD09]

I have to totally disagree. If there is one champion, he can not go the way of erdei. He has to fight the other good contenders. The failures you mention jake are only possible because we have so many champions in each division. Nobody has to fight anybody at all. That is especially disgusting because boxing is a global sport. It does not make money sense to pit someone like hasegawa against agbeko for example. If there is only one champ title fights will matter again. And the posters above me miss the point regarding the infrequent fighting champions. With only one champ all the other fights beneath title fight will come back (regional titles, eliminators....). Boxing can not matter without an answer to the question every sport in existence asks: Who is the best?

i agree 100 percent, we need one champ per division. if pavlik cant defend his crown because of injury within a year he should be stripped and the top 2 ranked contenders should fight for the championship. and then make pavlik the mandatory afterwards if he is cleared to fight.

There should only be one champion per division period. In Pavlik's case, if he is unable to defend the title within the calender year he should be stripped.

If a fighter is stripped on a medical then the 1 and 2 contenders shall meet to determine the new champion. Once Pavlik is able to return he should be granted an immediate bout for the title with the current champion. If Pavlik chooses tune ups instead then he will have to work his way up the rankings.

A champion must defend every 6 calender months unless medically unable. When he defends he must defend against the #1 contender, if not he will be stripped. If the #1 contender does not take the fight with the champion then he will be removed from the rankings. During this time the rest of the fighters in the rankings should be fighting eachother and jockying for position in the rankings. Extend the rankings to 25 in order to give the new kids some exposure.

If a champion fights above his weight class he will go one exemption on the 6 month defense rule. He still must defend within the calender year or be stripped. If that champion wins above his weight class and decides to pursue the championship in the next weight class he will be stripped and enter the rankings accordingly at the next weight class.

I know it's a lot but it can be done. Greed just needs to be taken away to do it.

I agree with all the above....Excellent points. It would make Boxing so much easier to follow and so much more popular. That is why I think the Super Six is a great idea and good start.

He obviously did it for the cash, do you know how much money he got? He lost the fight but at the end of the day he got a million + dollars.

Exactly. Correct if I'm wrong but JMM has never made as much money as he did with Mayweather. Besides the extra weight penalty was just an extra bonus. The guy knew it was a long shot to win as it was. So why not take an extra $600k LOL.

That fight was a rip off from the start. Mayweather knew he was going to win, he just wanted to "prove" how easily he could handle JMM compared to Manny. Thus he came in weighing over the limit.

JMM on the other hand got the opportunity of a life time. At the end of the days it's all about the money.

[rskumm21]

forgot vic darchinyan who has been taking on all comers.

i love how you put that pic as your avi. pure awesomeness.