alphabet soup belts/organions have they actually helped boxing

I agree that there's always another side to look at.

 

The biggest problem is their inconsistency. Interim titles when the regular champ is perfectly active, pointless mandatories, Super champions when they don't hold any other belts, champion emeritus or in recess or whatever the hell it is, the list goes on. Then you have champions like Guillermo Jones and Sergei Dzinziruk, when was the last time they defended their belts? I know both have their reasons, but it undermines the authority of the alphabets when it's fine for one champion to sit on his belt but others get stripped.

 

I think the best thing they've done is help fighters who are more high-risk/low-reward and don't have too many big names looking to fight them.

You look at the past and all the great fighters who either never got a title shot, or took so damn long to finally get one: Sam Langford, Harry Wills, Charley Burley, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Jake LaMotta, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall, etc.....Nowadays it's less likely to happen because of more titles out there. With four "major" titles out there, fighters are more likely to get at least one. And they can use it as a marketing tool. Of course Shane Mosley deserves credit for taking on fighters like Vernon Forrest & Winky Wright, who aren't exactly box-office draws. But those guys having titles helped market the fights as unification bouts. Who knows if HBO would have put up the money for those bouts if they couldn't sell it as unification bouts. Also, it helped Wright get exposure and his name out there when he was a mandatory. It allowed him to get a fight with Fernando Vargas and push him to the limit.

And some of the other titeholders at least make solid paydays despite not getting the big names. Margarito made over a million fighting Williams, and I think Williams got a pretty respectable payday as well.

 

I don't care HOW you spin it, there is NO way that having multiple champions in the same weight class is good for boxing. Football doesn't play four superbowls! Baseball doesn't have four world series! Puh-leez!

Anything good the alphabets have done could have easily been done in a under the unitary system that prevailed before they emerged.

 

they have dont some good like allowing fighters like johnson get a shot and payday against rjj.But their general disorganisation and blatant corruption outweights this.Also i think some of boxings problems would be solved if there was 1 champion and 4 titlists

 

You're assuming that somehow it's necessary to have all this corrupt sanctioning bodies to "fix" the problems of earlier eras. That's nonsense. The sanctioning bodies are the source of most of what's wrong with boxing today.

 

it promotes cherry picking.

 

the alpha belts are good for fighters it helps them to make more money than they otherwise might, thats good enough for me..

 

Yes, they help fighters get exposure but the public has no idea who is the man at any weight. The evil outweighs the good here. The Ring is better but has its problems as well. They need a system that the AP, ESPN, CNN/SI, HBO, Showtime, The Ring, all major and medium level promoters and trainers, all significant boxing writers and experts, all of them, vote on weekly.

One system.

Like the BCC rankings. I purposely leave out the belt orgs because they should be starved out of existence and significance. I know they mandate events and judges but all of this needs to be slowly taken over by a unified force, unfortunately its a pipe dream right now, but ultimately it would make more money for everyone involved if the public and the media all pointed to the same guy in each division and said - that guy, he is the numero uno right now.

The problem is you have so many horrible decisions too.

I think people should rank based on performance and who THEY think won the fight, not the judges. Thus lessening the influence of the judges. Further, I think they should have a site like boxrec where all of these writers and experts post their scores on each fight, which they and others can use to determine their own rankings.

Rankings should be based on performance, and performances lose significance the further away in weight and time that they are.

This is why, for instance, although Floyd is the highest skilled boxer of our era, and possibly the best welter, I would rank him on the outskirts of the top ten or even a bit lower until he has a solid performance against someone above him on the list.

I think, then, if EVERYONE started going by the same list, it would quickly force some exciting fights.

If everyone started saying to Floyd, here he is #14 in the world at welter it would drive him bananas, but I don't mean to attack Floyd who is stepping up with Mosley barring unforseen events, just it could be anybody,

If they have that damn number tatooed in their public image and in the public's mind they no longer give a **** about WBC, IBF, regional this, two time that, just that number, and that number becomes like college football where that number means everything, and these higher numbers mean bigger bowls i.e. fights, than we could fix boxing or begin too.

I know it is a pipe dream but the public needs help figuring out what is what.

Schedule strength would become a major factor and when you don't take on the harder opponents you start to drop. And every day on the news, on the web, on espn, and when Buffer and Lennon introduce you, all they say is this number.

The key is ranking on PERFORMANCE and considering LEVEL OF COMPETITION. Even a competitive loss vs a higher ranked opponent is often better than a few fights vs guys very low ranked.

I do think though, that everyone's choices need to be public, not secret.

If we had this kind of uniformity it would capture the public's imagination I am sure of it. Rankings are everything in college football.

Then, the cool thing is, just getting into the top 5 would be an incredible thing, better than many belt holders are now, more significance. And when a guy sits on his throne he sees his ass get voted right down the list, the list that everyone goes by, and because it is so important it ends up costing him money and reputation.

A guy like Narvaez in argentina, he gets to be #8 or so in the world, not a champ, number 8 or whatever, until he starts taking on the guys above him, and the world recognizes that number, lower than the others.

**** it would be great. #1 vs #2 or really any matches with high ranked fighters would become the best way to sell a fight, just like football matches get everyone excited when its the high ranked fighters.

And then to have the top eight in a revolving tournament every few years it would be insane.

The public desperately wants to UNDERSTAND what is what, but we have ten thousand voices ****ing them up and telling them different things, we need ONE VOICE and ****ing suliman can go drive a taxi