A brief history of the ABC era (boxing's sanctioning organizations)

Well, as the biggest MAB fan you could find on here, I have to say that whole ordeal was Marco's fault. He declined the WBC, and opted to roll with the Ring/lineal titles as his proof of supremacy. This opened the door for Morales vs. Ayala for the vacant green strap at 126lb, not through any fault of Morales or Ayala or the WBC. Barrera fought Kelley and Tapia in what officially were non-title bouts, scheduled for twelve or not. The lineal and Ring Mag titles are not substantial enough on their own without the backing of some genuine hardware, even in the fractured alphabet soup era, to stand on their own. IMO.

 

I might embellish the OP with an encyclopedic list of links to all the "alternative" championships from purveyors other than actual sanctioning bodies. (and since I have the likes of AIBA, the Association of Boxing Commisions, and the NYSAC listed maybe I will tack on the Ring Magazine with the caveat that it belongs in that outsiders group)

You have the Ring Magazine championships, the "ESPN" title (anybody remember that? It was contested in the eighties, as roughly on par with the North American titles - a domestic stepping-stone to a world title or consolation prize for TV mainstays that were entertaining and/or good enough to be fan-faves but probably didn't stand a chance at world level. Their belts in various divisions were scheduled the championship distance, 12 rounds apiece, held by the likes of Tyrone "Butterfly" Crawley at lightweight, Jesse Ferguson at heavy, etc. I'm not sure if ESPN maintained its own database of rankings or had some other arbitrary system to determine its title bouts' participants, though - need to do some more research on that), in the eerily not-so-distant social climes of the late 19th/early 20th century the shamefully once-necessary Colored titles, and the vastly misunderstood "Lineal" championships (great thread by GlaukosTheHammer on that subject here: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/lineal-explained-by-someone-who-actually-knows.601075/ - which I will also edit into the OP in the external links section...although I think it might be close to hitting the single post character limit) among some other minor ones.

 

PBC? Oh boy, can't wait..

 

Anybody else kind of low-key rooting for the scrappy underdog IBO? They are the first alphabet org to elbow their way into perception as semi-legitimized (as I said, pretty much standing now where the WBO did until about 15 years ago) that isn't rooted in the original superpowers: the main pair of bitter nemeses on top, and the almost Greek mythological offspring that sprouted from the WBA's head or were its ******* progeny from mating with a mortal in the guise of a jaguar or something.

They've done it from scratch, every step of the way, outmatched in connections, financial backing - you name it, they're disadvantaged. They also were ahead of the curve using computerized rankings before there was even such a thing as BoxRec (whom they officially adopted for theirs a few years ago). Their motto is "Honesty/Integrity/Trust" and they have never had any major corruption scandals AFAIK. Their list of past and current belt holders is, on the whole, pretty impressive (even if they do have the occasional "champ" who's arguably not top 15 in his division)

 

Like, yes, the case is easily made that fewer bits of letter-shaped pasta floating around in the alphabet soup is the ideal direction to be moving, not less - but unless any of the Big 4 goes Chapter 11 anytime soon, or the IBF and WBO decide to reconcile with Mommy Dearest and climb back into the womb to halve the major org count, at this point you almost have to say "fuck it, we're in for a penny/in for a pound...the more the merrier"

We're living in the fractured era with a multitude of belts, may as well learn to accept it. Really what's the difference between 4 & 5? If you find yourself aghast, remember that in the late nineties the same question would've elicited the same response as regarded the WBO - "really what's the difference between 3 & 4?"