Are world tidles now completely irrelevant?

Some belts mean more than others to me - but it all depends on opinion these days pretty much. I personally see the Ring champ as the official world champion, but others may not follow suit.

 

That's rubbish. Valuev was the the WBA champ when Haye beat him. Yes he may have got a questionable decision against Holyfield, but he was still officially the champ.

And I don't see anybody questioning Juan Manuel Marquez's reign as the Rings Lightweight champ, despite the fact that he won that belt from Joel Casamayor, who retained that belt against Santa Cruz with an even more dubious 'victory'.

And before you point out that Chagaev was the legitmate champ let me remind you he had been inactive for over a year. You don't get to hold a title hostage even if you have a legitmate injury. He should've been stripped instead of being deemed a 'champion in recess'. That he never got the rematch against Valuev isn't Haye's fault.

 

How though?

Wlad beats the WBA champion, 5 months later Haye fights for the title against SNV. :huh

 

But he wasn't the champ though was he. He had essentially been stripped of his title whilst injured and handed a phony 'champion in recess' title. I appreciate he deserved the opportunity to reclaim that very same title in the ring once he returned from injury, but he opted to fight Wlad after his rematch with Valuev fell through. And when he was announced as Wlad's opponent the WBA stripped him of his phony title as well. So I repeat he wasn't the champ.

 

Not completely. It depends.

 

Depends how serious you take your boxing.

 

this:deal

 

they are useful for marketing, but they are usless when it comes to figuring out who the best is.

 

Don't worry though fella's WBF is here to save the day! :happy..

The World Boxing Federation has declared themselves to be the most serious contender to challenge the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO after sanctioning 40 bouts in 2011. “We bring sanity back into boxing by not bringing in ridiculous and meaningless titles which no fan really wants or having regional titles with ineligible fighters competing for it, simply to earn a sanction fee,” claims WBF President Howard Goldberg of South Africa. It was also announced that the WBF will introduce a new “Gaelic/Celtic” title. Meanwhile, WBF middleweight champion Karama Nyilawila (13-7-2, 6 KOs) defends his “world” title against Cagri Ermis (12-10-2, 4 KOs) on February 11 in Hamburg, Germany

 

I wanted to be the undisputed middleweight champion of the world, I wanted to take on and beat fighters with the abilty of SRR, LaMotta and Hagler, my old man reckoned that I had the skills but unfortunately beer, women and ***s degraded those skills. Of course titles mean something but world champion has to mean that, world champion.

 

World titles still mean alot but for me its all about the domestic scene. It has to be the only place in world boxing where all the large majority of top fights happen, great wars, competative bouts and there is a CLEAR architecture to the competition from Area Titles to National Titles.

 

The world tikle situation is f*cked. You've got stupid snot-nosed young fans popping up who assume that piece of **** IBO belt is a world title. An Area title is more prestigious than that f*ckin thing.

 

The first thing that needs to happen on the world stage is the orgs need to lose the interim, diamond etc

Huck and Povetkin really shouldn't be fighting for a world title. At best it should be a WBA world title eliminator.

Martinez and Chavez situation is disgusting and Zbik was defending an interim title for ****s sake.

 

Being a world champion as and of itself certainly doesn't have the same value as it used to, due to a combination of proliferation and politics.

However, I don't think we've got to the point where it is totally meaningless.

The experienced fan will always know when he is being fed ****, title or no title. I would say it has a bigger hold over the casual fan's imagination.

 

I would agree with all that but the first line. In a different context (financial) world champions have kept and indeed arguably increased in value.

This is a hard sport and the real winners are the promoters. So if a fighter can get a 10% increase in a purse for fighting for a title, then I do not think we can begrudge that. Not least because, as you suggest, the proper fan knows the true best of a division.