My bone to pick with Joe is that he'd been the WBO champ for nine years at that point; surely he should've done more to create a profile stateside prior to the Manfredo bout? It's a bit of an act of desperation when you've been a champ for that length of time and are having to fight, let's face it, a no mark who has no business challenging for a world title. Even Manfredo stated that his friends had no idea who Joe was. And as regards fighting mandatories, I think more fighters should hold on to belts and fight their number one challenger no matter how weak; only by holding all belts and facing all comers can a fighter become undisputed (or cement themselves as the divisions number one). Eventually the money fights will come.
Calzaghe won the IBF from Lacy, and only defended it once, then vacated it, then picked up Kesslers WBA and WBC he held 2 and then 3 of the 4 at any given time, so not technically undisputed, Hatton IBF, and WBA, Hamed held no more than 2 at any given time, Lewis held WBC, IBF, and WBA, Honeyghan was the only true undisputed champ IMHO as he held all 3 of he belts available, Haye held 3 of the 4 Cruiser belts an honourable mention should go to Calzaghe after the Kessler fight for holding 3 out of 4, as should Lennox Lewis for getting 3 out of 4 heavyweight belts
TBH Flea I don't think their P4P rankings impact the value of their titles at all. The titles are generally won and lost in the ring, whether the Rings P4P rankings are fair (IMHO P4P lists in general are pointless) doesn't really affect the titles.
The shenanagens they went through to make sure Wladimir Klitschko picked up their heavyweight title impact much more on my view of the value of the titles than their P4P rankings...
They were far too keen to have a champ in the "flagship" division, with the 1 and 2 at the weight Vit and Wlad never destined to fight I think they just made up their minds it was going to be Wlad.
They did something very similar with Cunningham & Adamek for the 200lb strap for some reason, even though nobody really gives a **** about the cruiserweight division - Adamek had no way done enough to merit his number 2 ranking in the division to contest the vacant belt.
At least that was a decision by the panel that decides the rankings though and they were the one and two ranked. You could make an argument for that to be correct even if you don't agree. There is no argument that Chagaev was one of the top two fighters in the division, or that he was a close enough third to justify a title bout, and the decision was taken without the rankings panel being involved.
of you go through the divisions in terms of lineal champions and the number 1 ranked fighter in a division, they hold the WBO title. Klitscko Martinez Pacquiao Bradley Marquez Montiel Calderon all WBO champions. Not 1 alphabet is stronger than another anymore. i did something with the ring rankings a while back awarding points based on position to the title holders in each division. The WBA and WBC were significantly lower than the IBF and WBO
Chagaev was clearly the number 3 heavyweight at the time and Cunningham and Adameck clearly number 1 and 2 after Haye has moved up.
Nobody said Chagaev wasn't number three. He clearly wasn't close to the top two, therefore there was no justification for involving him in a title fight just on the basis that the top two didn't want to fight.
Not to mention the fact the the WBO seems to be the belt of choice for Puerto Ricans these days. Other notable developments are the fact that Wlad seems to cherish the WBO above all his other trinkets, and Tim Bradley was perfectly comfortable heading into his unification bout with Holt, knowing that even if he were to prove victorious he would only have the WBO belt shortly after. The German promoters are also seeming to acknowledge the WBO as an equal to the big three, having for some time shown a preference for the traditional titles.