How would boxing do in terms of popularity if there was only one championship belt per weight class?

Who cares how popular it is

 

Exactly. The Spence/Crawford situation is a good example. They may end up fighting eventually, but I wish someone could eliminate the possibility of a scenario where guys like that could just sit on their "World" title belts, and never fight each other to determine who the real champion is. One belt per division, and fewer weight classes would be great for the sport IMO.
The sactioning bodies need to go away, and something like The Ring belt should be the only belt. Would also be nice if the sport had some oversight...maybe something like a FIFA-type organization. Kind of tired of seeing scenarios where a guy like Don King signs a fighter, and that fighter instantly goes from unranked to top 10 in the WBA, without having done anything to deserve it. Just my two cents...

 

Here's what would really help, and it would reflect an innovation over the old days instead of a return.

Knowing what the next fight will be at the end of the fight before it. Take a look at the exuberance shown by jaded posters here, decades into their boxing watching careers, after a big win. Imagine Ryan Garcia knocks out Tank, people are going crazy, and he announces "I'm coming for Devin Haney's ass next on July 15th at MGM Grand, get your tickets now!"

Instead they waste the magic moment of excitement that only combat sports provides and by the time they announce it half the fans don't hear about it and the other half are like "Ryan Garcia? That guy who beat a walking dwarf with a speech impediment and zero good wins? Wake me when Campbell Hatton is fighting again."

Happens with my wife and the one remaining real life friend who follows boxing a little. They watch a good fight, appreciate it, then nine months later I'm like "so and so is coming back this weekend" but they can't remember him.

I'm not sure it hurts too badly when a division is loaded and can sustain four champs, but some of these divisions don't even have one!

Like 130lbs right now, without Loma, Tank, or Shakur. Even Leo Santa Cruz and Jamel Herring are gone! They can't even give these belts away!

We're paying guys to take off their clothes and bop each other with leather mitts up to and sometimes past the point of death. If it doesn't maintain a baseline level of popularity it's going to get banned fast.

 

Banned fast? Define fast for me because I've never once heard any credible information suggesting boxing would be banned. Banned by whom anyways? The world? There are far less popular combat sports still chugging along not yet banned somehow

 

Every pro sport appears to be in trouble in Canada and the USA. Polls say gen z has more people who hate sports than who are avid fans. Participation rates in almost all sports is declining. Pro sports in North America will be in deep trouble in 10-15 years if they can't turn these numbers around.

 

It's been banned before in a variety of US states and even England before, it could easily be banned again.

https://www.britannica.com/sports/boxing/Boxings-legal-status

It gets discussed from time to time.

https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/trevor-hancock-why-is-boxing-still-not-banned-4673062

 

It'd be amazing. But that would stop fighters posing with meaningless belts on Instagram. So, good luck.

 

We live in a day & age where attention spans are very diminished, and forms of communication are getting shorter. If we had 8 divisions with 1 champ and one governing body, it would go a long way towards getting boxing hot again. Clarity, as a poster mentioned earlier, is very important in this situation.

Just as importantly is schedule. Fans of all sports nowadays seem more stat-oriented than in the past. How does one geek out on stats if there is little consistency? A reduction in divisions/governing bodies/champion belts augmented by a large amount of fights that happen on schedule, on a regular, dependable basis, may do wonders for our beloved sport.

 

Might encourage the best in each weight class to fight each other, rather than hold on to their alphabet titles and mouth off on social media. Positive step for sure.