Having all 4 Belts...is it really a big deal?

Some titlists don't make very large purses. Orgs used to charge 3% of your purse or $3,000 (if you made less than $100,000 for your purse), whichever was more, as a sanctioning fee. I don't know if they still do the $3,000. I haven't bothered to check in a while.

But if you have four belts and lets say each org is taking 3% of your purse for a sanctioning fee, that's 12% of your purse going to sanctioning bodies.

If you're already paying a manager a 20% cut or more, plus your team, and everything else, another 12% off your take-home to give to orgs just so they "recognize" you as champ is a lot.

I remember when guys like Zab Judah had three of the belts (WBC, WBA and IBF) and when he defended against Carlos Baldomir, Baldomir said I'm not paying three fees. I'll pay one. So he paid the WBC's 3% fee.

When he beat Judah, the other orgs declared their titles vacant.

It's utter nonsense. You beat the champ in the ring, but you don't give the orgs their 3% fee, you "aren't" the champ in their eyes? That says everything.

Sanctioning bodies only exist to collect fees. They offer no service but ratings. And it doesn't cost anything to rate fighters. We can all do it in two seconds. Their "judges" aren't better scorers. Their referees screw up as much as anyone else's do. State or local athletic commissions can do much of the same work.

Every org is a cash grab even going back to the National Boxing Association ... which actually asked fighters to pay them thousands of dollars to "consider them" for the "logical" contender spot (which was the equivalent of the mandatory spot today).

And fighters would pay them $5,000 or something (in the 1950s) ... and they'd still routinely turn them down. ("We've considered your petition, and we've decided it's a no. But thanks for the $5,000.)

Talk about blatant bribery.

So it's been going on forever. There are just more of them now than there were then. And new ones pop up because more people want to grab a share of a fighter's purse for doing nothing, too.

Unless your promoter agrees to pay your sanctioning fees (some do) in order to help promote you as a top guy ... or you just want to prove something to yourself and win all four belts before dropping some ... financially, in the long term, paying four separate sanctioning fees is more of a drain than anything.

 

Yeah, it kind of signifies youre the absolute best in the division without question.

 

Maybe Pac could have become undisputed at 140, or 135. Those were garbage divisions at the time.

 

Here I can't blame Clenbuterol at all.
You today need to have WBA Super, IBF World and WBC World & WBO World titles to be called as an undisputed and still here better if you besides this will have also The Ring and unformal Lineal too to add to these all in the division.
While looks that during some timefreame A.J and Wlad had also IBO titles too.

There are plenty of orgs and each from these does have multiple belts, for casual lad it is difficult to understand.

 

The athletic commissions in a few key countries/regions could stop this madness if they wanted to and come up with a unified ranking system and one champion per division.

 

Agreed.

 

Exactly. Us boxing fans sometimes simultaneously trash the belts but then act as if having them mean something. I’d love if a high profile boxer such as AJ or Canelo just tossed the belts in protest and fought beltless. It would still sell so who cares.

 

I have 6 belts, all leather, 4 black, 2 brown. 2 for trousers, 2 for jeans and the other 2 for either.

You can never have enough belts.

 

It's a big deal because presumably you have beaten the top fighters in the division, and you are rightfully #1.

 

It’s also a glaring weakness in the “sport” when guys can’t unify if their lives depended on it but Canelo states he wants to and they roll out the red carpet and make it happen.

 

It used to be. Not so much anymore. I used to be a big defender of the boxing is dying crowd but I’m starting to lean the other way. Floyd Mayweather was right after all lol. We aren’t fighting to see who the best is. Haha.

All the fans hating on YouTube fights are getting everything the sport deserves.

 

the fighters also share some of the responsibility for all that. i will take 2 of my favorite fighters for example. spence and mikey. if spence gave up money, or billing, or whatever, to get crawford in the ring and beat him, he would also have canelo clout. or mikey took out taylor and prograis. he would be a superstar set up for mega fights vs teo and ryan. and maybe a loma retirement fight. but he just wants today money and spence is too proud to bend, so they deny themselves canelo benefits.