Ali Eren Demirezen announces retirement

Plenty of clubs to bounce at on the Reeperbahn.

 

Heh… I think charging a “sanctioning fee” may have more to do with the reason they have all these “regional” “super” “regular” etc. belts….

 

Many of the regional affiliated belts have been around since the early/mid 20th century, even before there was video of a lot of these guys winning them. They were specifically developed so the WBA, for instance, would be "world" sanctioning body, meaning you could win their Asian belt and get a world rating, win a European belt and get world rated, win a North American belt and get world rated ... and so on. Because these regional belts were affiliated with a world body, it didn't matter who your promoter was or where you lived. You could get a world rating and a possible world title shot.

In theory, it's a good practice, particularly in a time when it was difficult to ever see all these fighters all over the globe. Just set up regional titles all over, and then fill your world ratings with international fighters who were theoretically the best from their regions.

Which is how, for example, Asian fighters would show up as mandatories to world champions, like Aaron Pryor and Ray Mancini, etc. in the second half of the 20th century and boxing fans in the western world were wondering who the hell these contenders were.

And you still get highly rated based on winning and defending these regional belts. I remember John Ruiz being rated over Holyfield in the WBA ratings after Evander lost to Lennox Lewis. And Holyfield was going to sue the WBA because he wanted to know how Ruiz was rated above him, when Evander had just defended the WBA belt a bunch of times before losing. And the WBA said it was because Ruiz had won their North American belt and defended it five or six times, and that moved him to the top of the ratings.

More fighters who don't have powerful promoters should utilize these regional belts. That's what they are there for. But many don't.

The "super" and "regular" etc. belts, on the other hand, are different variations of the "world" belts ... not regional belts ... and are strictly money grabs.

If the top contenders won't fight you, and you don't have a powerful promoter, you CAN STILL get highly rated and even become a mandatory challenger if you just focus on winning and defending regional belts. It's happened countless times.

In fact, just about every time any fan has ever said, "How did (fill in the blank) become a mandatory, because I never heard of him" ... it's because that boxer went the regional belt route.

 

Thats interesting, I appreciate the informative response! Makes a lot of sense, and helps me to see and differentiate why the regional belts are a good thing (while the other categories are mostly just cash grabs).

 

the sport is sad he is a decent Hw who is a t est for any top guy . hes talented enough to not just be a punching bag and would threaten any of the bototm top 10 over 12 rounds.

 

This is why pbc suck. They don't know how to get things done