With two legit champions defending their titles recently (Martinez & Marquez) it got me thinking how great for boxing it is to see everybody recognizing who is the best at a certain weight, and leaving all the alphabet titles nonsense to one side. So I was wondering, how many other divisions have legitimate champions? Has Wlad done enough to be the main man at HW? Does Pascal winning the Ring title and unifying titles done enough to get him recognized as the best at LHW? Is John the top at Featherweight? Is Mayweather the MAN at Welter because he beat Mosley? Is Ward top at SMW? Does Montiel have a claim to BW after beating Hasegawa? Heavyweight: Wladimir Klitschko? Crusierweight: ? Light Heavyweight: Jean Pascal? Super Middleweight: ? Middleweight: Sergio Martinez Light Middleweight: ? Welterweight: ? Light Welterweight: ? Lightweight: Juan Manuel Marquez Super Featherweight: ? Featherweight: ? Super Bantamweight: ? Bantamweight: ? Junior Bantamweight: ? Flyweight: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Light Flyweight: Giovani Segura Minimumweight: ? Let me know if we all agree on a division and I'll update the list. Also for discussion,would any match-up in a division create a clear champion?
Vitali vs Wlad is the obvious one for heavyweight. A lot of the other weight classes are up in the air because of all the moving up and down division, and catchweight stuff. I do believe Andre Ward is the man in the super middleweight division though.
Before the move up in weight Roman Gonzalez was the champ at straweight. If Donaire has officially moved up to bantam, Hugo Cazares is the man at super-flyweight.
The winner of the Super Six will be the man, having beaten at least three of the top five in the division, at least one of which will also have two good wins.
Here are the 6 REAL champions in Boxing Heavyweight - Wladimir Klitschko (IBF & WBO) -Beat Ruslan Chagaev June 2009 Light Heavyweight - Jean Pascal (WBC)- Beat Chad Dawson August 2010 Middleweight - Sergio Martinez (WBC) - Beat Kelly Pavlik April 2010 Lightweight - Juan Manuel Marquez (WBA & WBO) - Beat Michael Katsidis November 2010 Flyweight - Pongsanklek Wonjongham (WBC) - Beat Koki Kameda March 2010 Light Flyweight - Giovanni Segura (WBA & WBO) - Beat Ivan Calderon August 2010 Here is how the other divisions can corwn a legit champ; Cruiserweight - Winner of Steve Cunningham (IBF) vs Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (WBC)or Marco Huck (WBO) Super Middleweight - Winner off Andre Ward (WBA) vs Carl Froch (WBC) or Lucian Bute (IBF) Light Middleweight - Winner off Sergeii Dzinziruk (WBO) vs Miguel Cotto (WBA) Welterweight - Winner off Floyd Mayweather Jnr vs Manny Pacquiao (WBO) Light Welterweight - Winner off Timothy Bradley (WBO) vs Devon Alexander (WBC) January 29th Super Featherweight - Winner off Takashi Uchiyama (WBA) vs Mzonke Fana (IBF) or Ricky Burns (WBO) Featherweight - Winner Chris John (WBA) vs Juan Manuel Lopez (WBO) or Yuriorkis Gamboa (IBF) Super Bantamweight - Winner off Toshiaki Nishioka (WBC) vs Ryol Li Lee (WBA) Bantamweight - Winner off Fernando Montiel (WBC & WBO) vs Anselmo Moreno (WBA) Super Flyweight - Hugo Cazares (WBA) vs Omar Navarez (WBO) Strawweight - Winner off Nkosinathi Joyi (IBF) vs Oleydong Sithsanerchai (WBC) or Donnie Nietes (WBO)
Is the Ring championship only won by either defeating the reigning champion or by winning a fight between the number 1 and number 2 ranked challengers? Because with Ward ranked number 1, Bute 2 and Froch 3, then a super-six final between Ward and Froch wouldn't be for the championship, which is really stupid.
In some cases they'll allow a fight between 1 and 3 to be for the title. They should do this in the case of it being a Ward-Froch final. Not only that but if Carl Froch does beat Glen Johnson, he should move above Bute in the ratings up to 2nd anyway IMO. And apart from the use of those pointless alphabelts, I mostly agree with Rob on how the rest of the division goes.
Froch should be No.2 especially if he beats Johnson. the ring goes between the number 1 and 2 unless the number 1 has already beat the number 2 and fights the number 3. or if the number 1 and 2 are brothers.
If the Ring did a few things we could take the belt seriously. But you need the belts as they make good fights. Khan vs Maidana Marquez vs Katsidis Pascal vs Dawson All mandatorys. Would these fights of happend without the belts enforcing them. If the ring has mandatorys we could take the belt seriously.
Of course the belts are pointless. As we've seen recently with Manny v Margarito, belts get added on to almost every fight nowadays anyway. Even if it's openly a nothing fight, some crap like the WBF or WBC Silver title gets added.
The mandatorys for the Heavyweight champs are Solis, Adameck and Chagaev. Are they not the best 3 Heavyweight contenders? Hucks mandatory is Lebedev. Quality fight only happening becuase the WBO has ordered it. Nathan Cleverly will fight the winner of Shumevon vs Braehmer because the WBO will enforce it. Dawson was Pascals mandatory for the WBC. None of the belts have enforced mandatories during the super 6 due to the level of opposition. Sturm vs Golovkin is being enforced by the WBA. Quality fight. Angulo is Dzinziruk's WBO mandatory. Maidana is Khans WBA mandatory. Katsidis was Marquez WBO mandatory. Takahiro Aoh was Tajberts WBC mandatory. Gamboa is Chris Johns mandatory for the WBA. Quality fight. Darchinyan is Montiels mandatory for the WBC. Edgar Sosa is Wonjongjams WBC mando. Quality fight. I am not say these guys are perfect but do not say there pointless in the current boxing landscape. But its not like the ring/lineal champs are going out of there way to fight the best. Klitscko is the "true champion" at Heavyweight but his next opponent is Chisora. Not a top 15 fighter. Pascal is fighting 45 year old Bernard Hopkins. Martinez will defend his "lineal" title at 155lbs agasint a Light Middleweight. Wongjonkam's last 2 opponents have not been top 15 fights.
