1. IBF - the most well run organisation that are strict and clear with mandatories and dont break or bend the rules to suit certain fighters like otjer oganisations. 2. WBA - oldest organisation and dont seemed to take a bias toward certain promotion fighter like other organisations. 3. WBO - has shown to biased towards Russian promotional fughter and Queensberry fighters. 4. WBC - We be crooks! Make up the rules as they go along and bend the rules and make easy mandatories for the Champions they like. They allow their champion not to fight a mandatory or rank 1 opponent for an extensive amount of time if they dont want their champion fighting a tough opponent. The WBC Diamond and franchise belts are a joke.
IBF WBC (it's still the green belt) WBO WBA (too many of them) End of the day though, it's who you beat for whichever belt that really says the most about a fighter.
Anyone who worries more than five seconds about this has their priorities all jacked up. None of the belts mean squat anymore. They're a piece of gaudy metal and leather that very few casual fans (who bring in the money) can really differentiate. Both Fury and Joshua could drop their belts tomorrow and the fight would still be massive. Conversely, you could take Wilder and Ruiz, give them both back their belts, attempt to market the fight as a unification between world champs, and watch how much the prestige of those worthless pieces of crap actually converts to hard sales at the box office.
The belts have no ranking. The men that hold them legitimize the belts. You can go down the weight classes and whichever belt the real champion is holding, is the legitimate belt. In heavyweight right now, the Ring and WBC are legit. In Lightweight, the Ring, WBA and WBO are legit. In a particular division, if the best won't fight the best, the belts mean nothing. Every sanctioning body that refuses to rank a champion who holds a different belt is garbage.
the best 5 "belts" ? OK... 1) Right Hand of Shavers vs Holmes 2) RH of Lewis vs Rahman 2 3) RH of Jackson vs Graham 4) RH of Hearns vs Duran 5) Uppercut of Tyson vs Ribalta The belts instead you are talk are talking are annoying
We should also consider in order of recognition the BoxRec #1 and the TBRB #1 and Lineal as these could have overtaken the Ring in relevance (to boxing fans anyway) post GBP buyout.