The IBF - Love 'em For Enforcing Their Rules or Hate 'em for Their Terrible Rankings

[-PBP-]

One thing about the IBF is that they enforce mandatories and are not afraid to strip even the biggest names. No other sanctioning bodies do this. But the problem? Their rankings are terrible. By enforcing their rules, we have seen title fights such as:

Martin vs. Glazkov
Spinks vs. Bundrage #1 and 2
Bundrage vs. Ishe Smith
Kovalev vs. Mohammedi
Hopkins vs. Murat
Lucian Bute vs. Jean-Paul Mendy
Devon Alexander vs. Randall Bailey
Kell Brook vs. Kevin Bizier
Kell Brook vs. JoJo Dan
Devon Alexander vs. Lee Purdy

And now we get....Gennady Golovkin vs. Dominic Wade. How do you feel about this?

[1hourRun]

You get some gems here and there ; Klitsckho vs. Pulev : Takayama vs. Argumedo , Carl Froch vs. George Groves almost had Degale vs. Froch , and looks like Joshua is going to be mando. Keeping it real most mandos are dull so props to the IBF.

[Tom Cruise]

The fact they enforce their rules probably makes their rankings seem worse than they are compared to the other bodies.

The fella who plugged his rankings website a little while back showed that the IBF is far from the worst. Though they are still crap. If they had legit rankings they would be by far the best org on the planet and would get big praise from fans and media alike.

In general i prefer that they enforce their rules, but maybe they could do with modifying their rules in certain areas (for example, giving new champions a bit more time fight their mando's, or recognizing rematch clauses).

I see that their strictness allows less marketable fighters a chance to make their way up the rankings and be sure that the IBF will back them when they get to the eliminater/mando position (see Julian Williams).

[Tom Cruise]

The frustrating thing is how easy it is to arrange decent rankings.

On CHB forum they have fan made top 15's (+champs) for all the divisions. It gets updated monthly and is infinitely better than any sanctioning orgs. I actually refer to their rankings more often than Ring or TBRB if I want to see where a fighter is ranked.

If you start enforcing mando's and eliminators based on sound rankings you actually start to get decent fights made and the right men holding the belts.

[Marchegiano]

Meh, boxing fans are the biggest crybabies on the planet, the IBF is alright.

[M Bison]

Having Charles Martin as a world champ is still considerably better than having Tyson Fury as one, so fair play to them for sticking by the book.

[Santa_]

The only beef I have with the IBF is the ****** 10 pound rehydration max.

Fighters should be allowed to fully rehydrate after weigh ins.

[Quiksilva]

The IBF by far imo is the crappiest sanction boxing organization in the sport.

IBF looks like crap anyway. Even the sound of it sounds ridiculous

and the NEW 'IBF CHAMPION OF THE WORLD'

[285Kid]

Hating on the IBF for giving the young guys a chance at a belt????

Martin/Glazkov
Barrera/Murat
Uzcategui/Johnson
Johnson/O'Kane
Bizier/Lawson
Barthelemy/Shafikov
Pedraza/Smith
Julian Williams/TBD
Selby/Hunter
Arroyo/Ancajas

[Dr Rumack]

You need both, but I guess it starts with enforcing mandatories. Without it you have nothing. But if they're enforced then guys have an incentive to work their way up the rankings. Obviously ludicrous mandatories are a negative but that only shows that both sides are necessary.

No matter what you look at it you end up coming back to the same point though, that the organisations themselves are an absurdity and they can never be part of any lasting solution.