Without any context it means so little. Even winning a world title doesnt mean all that much without context. That's because you can simply choose who you fight. In pro boxing you can literally call yourself champion by fighting who you want to. Think about how weird that is compared to other sports. In amatuer boxing winning the gold medal means something huge. Why? Because you have to fight everybody who is in front of you. Same thing with the NBA playoffs you dont get to say well let's duck Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the Chicago Bulls. And then play who we want when we want and then say we won the title. That's what happens in pro boxing. Ducking the best fighters and fighting a paper champ and calling yourself world champ. Its absurd. And that isnt even getting into the fact that there is a minimum of 4 world titles in 17 weight divisions. Winning the title or saying I've made 10 defenses means nothing. What matters is who you fought and when.
I can see what you mean you are correct . Problem is how we all got here , its due to corruption and exactly what you say fighters ducking and taking dives which led to boxing being fractured and other sanctioning bodies being created in an effort to actually stop this sort of stuff however at the same time they actually increased the corruption and also the whole state became a mess . A lot of this is due to American sports corruption which is biased and corrupt beyond anything it really is a complete shame its all about money and face .
We're in an era of 4-5 guys claiming to be a champion at any given time in any division, and also the idea that one must claim titles in as many divisions possible to achieve greatness. Cherry picking and title hopping... today's boxing.
For me, most things in this sport are meaningless. The belts, the promoters, the politics, the quantity of opponents, the PPV numbers, the ratings, the managers, the trainers, the title defenses, the sanctioning bodies, the contracts, the hype, the praise etc. It's all a waste of time. The only thing that means anything to me is, the skillset and the quality of the wins.
There so much noise out here to hype certain guys up. Not enough emphasis on opposition and skillset.
