British Undisputed World Champions

****ing disgusted with that to be honest.

Rhodes fought and won his eliminator and has been passed over!

 

Maybe, but a lot of what the WBA and WBO have done is speculation. What The Ring did is matter of public record and proven, much like the WBC and the Jones/Nunn/Rocchigiani incident, and the whole IBF/Lee thing.

History shows you simply cannot trust any alphabet organization be it the WBA, IBU, WAA or The Ring...

 

Terry Downes at middleweight

 

Downes was recognized by New York/Europe and the UK, but Fullmer was recognized by the NBA, so I do not think Downes can be considered as THE generally recognized World Champion of the time.

 

Fair enough.

 

What about Lynch?

 

This is the best post in the thread.

'Undisputed' is now a completely outdated concept in boxing, IMO. It's nigh on impossible to hold all of the four 'major' belts with all of the politics that are pervasive in the sport. I remember a little while ago there was a good debate as to whether David Haye really was the 'undisputed' cruiser champ; it was interesting to see some claim that Darchinyan's claim to being 'undisputed' was bigger than Haye's just because the IBF is seen as a bigger bauble than the WBO. To add to that, Haye also had the lineal title in his possesion. We could also switch that around and say that Darchinyan didn't have a lineal claim, but was by far the best in the Super Fly division. In this day and age where we have watered-down, insignificant tiles, if people mostly agree that someone is by far the best in the division then that's by far a better accolade than how many shiny belts someone holds, IMO.

Casa's got the right idea:

This content is protected

 

In their current state I'll take the The Ring over the Alphabet Boys. One incident over 30 years ago when they had different owners, editors, staff etc doesn't drag them down to the level that the WBC, WBA, IBF have consistantly operated at over the years.

 

Lynch almost had the opposite problem to Downes, he was recognized as NBA/UK Champ (35-37).

Small Montana (35-37) was recognized by New York and California.

Valentin Angelmann (36-38) was recognized by the IBU (Europe) as World Champion.