Do you recognise the WBO

All the alphabet belts are meaningless nowadays.

Does it matter if Haye v Vitali will be for the WBC strap or a non-title match? Of course it doesn't.

Hatton v Pac will be for the true LWW championship no matter what Bradley, Holt and the others say.

Calzaghe will be the man at LHW if he decides to fight on. Garay, Erdei and Dawson's alpha straps mean **** all (though Erdei is linear :-oops.

The fans know who the best fighters are in each division, we don't need a belt to tell us that.

 

Its hard to recognise the WBO when you've had so many inferior champions holding the belt, desperately trying to convince people that they are a legitimate world champion, it should always be a stepping stone to the 'Big 3' belts unless your a British fighter like Nelson or Calzaghe who kind of hide on these shores under the protection of the WBO knowing that most of the dangerous fighters in all divisions are historically on the road to the WBC .. WBO has its place but it should be regarded like a European title, strictly as a stepping stone to greater glory

 

Erdei is a real pain in the arse where the "lineal" question comes up isn't he?

 

He ****s the whole pro-linear argument up.

 

Only once your established in boxing and the public consciousness do the belts mean nothing and you can give them up, World title belts are absolutely important for fighters who dont get much exposure or PPV nights, once your on the level of Calzaghe and Hatton you can throw away the belts because the public want to watch you fight regardless of belts and will pay for it but you must get to that level first, but without belts, Hatton, Calzaghe, Pac etc wouldnt be in a position to choose they're own roads

 

If Tzyu had been stripped of his IBF belt prior to facing Hatton, Hatton would still have been recognised as the no.1 LWW in the world after the fight.

Paulie Malignaggi, who's not really a well known fighter, would also have been regarded as the no.1 LWW in the world if he had beaten Hatton. Even Malignaggi and his people realised this as they dropped there alpha strao to make the fight.

 

As far as what I regard as the "real" champion is, its not popularity (or not always who's the "best"), its "the man who beat the man". I know its cliched but its the way that boxing always at least tried to make its champions.

 

That's whats so great about boxing-you can trace lineages of titles based on "the man who beat the man".

That's why I believe Marquez is the LW champ even though Campbell has 3 belts but I can't accept Erdei as the LHW champion, I just can't.

 

i'll go along with that ^^

 

I think you've kind of missed my point.

Long before the WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF existed boxers had claims to be World Champion.

Sometimes you would have a multiple(up to 4/5) amount of boxers claiming to be the World champion in the one weight class. Other times you would have one fighter on this side of the Atlantic recognised and another fighter on the other side. These claims were only removed when fighter lost to another fighter with a claim(otherwise the victor would just inherit the old fighters claim), this made it as difficult as it is today to proclaim a World champion in most divisions.

But eventually over a course of time, fighters claims would be eliminated and the 2 with claims left would meet and a true World champion would be established. Only for this situation to repeat itself when a champion retired or moved up in weight. Basically things were the exact same before the alphabet boys came to town as they are now.

Is Felix Sturm a World champion ?, well not really he's a contender.
Is Marco Antonio Rubio a World champion ?, no he's a contender too
What about Daniel Geale, yep another contender.

So what separates these fighters ?, is it their belts ?.......some may think it is but it's not. Quality is the answer, they're all contenders and how valid a contender they are is just based on how good they are. The fighter makes the belt etc.

Once people wise up to this situation, and realise that if someone holding the WBE title is better than someone holding the WBC title(and neither is the true champion), then the WBE title holder is just a better contender and neither of them is really a champion then things will start to be okay.

Why should we let corrupt sanctioning bodies dictate to us that there are several 'Champions of the World' !, when in truth we know there should only be one and we know that if the 2 best fighters face in a division(where there isn't already a true champion), then the winner of that fight is the champion of the World. Whether a belt is on the line or not.

Now that situation does leave us with Zoldt Erdei as the Light-Heavyweight World champion, but if we didn't pander to these sanctioning organisations enough pressure would of been put on him and his promoters as the genuine World champion to actually fight someone decent.

To sum it up, the alphabet titles mean nothing on their own, the champion does indeed make the belt and by right it is impossible to have more than one World champion in a division, merely possible to have several people with a claim to it, if there is no other champion.

 

Yep, the lineal should keep his title until he's beaten in the ring and thats a great way to do things IMHO but Erdei is a real **** for ****ing the whole system up.

I might just pretend he never existed.:good

 

Yep, I guess so. The truth is the promotional companies and the writers and broadcasters like HBO recognise the belt as major. People who 'dont recognise' the WBO belt will probably not dispute that Cotto was a 140 pound titlist. They will not dispute the fact that Calzaghe was a ten year champ....It just becomes confusing, full of double standards.

The belt is just the same as the others really, all have their faults. Its ridiculous that there are so many, and more than 1 to be honest....the WBO is held in slightly lower regard I think, but there is no real reason for that.

 

i was going to start a thread on sanctioning bodies, and corruptness..and the general state of the 'sport' of pro boxing...
dont need to now, as its been touched on well enough here for me...
i'm glad there's folks on here with good common sense.

 

Erdei is a guy who has something but doesn't realise how valuable he is. All he and his promoters see is the WBO belt and they're happy to defend that against nobodies in their backyard and are willing to keep hold of it.

They don't realise that Erdei is (unfortunately) The Light Heavyweight Champion of the World- the title once held by the likes of Michael Spinks, Bob Foster and Archie Moore. He technically has a duty to defend his title against the top contenders in the division but his WBO belt allows him to defend against bum mandatories and nobodies. The guy is holding the title hostage and alphabet belts are mainly the reason why. As BigEars pointed out, in past eras he would not have been able to do this and would have had to defend against a legit contender.

 

It is arguably the best belt in the world.

That includes everyday belts.