Which fighters lose the most status historically? So imagine a fantasy world where boxing had only ever had one lone belt,per division. WBC,IBF,WBO whichever. Which fighters suffer the most historically?
Its hard to say because the best fighter could end up getting boxed out. Depends on who gets a title shot when. Someone you think would get exposed in the one belt era could just get lucky and screw everyone else. In the 1910s you had 4 HW title fights in 6 years and somehow Willard ended up as champion and Frank Moran ended up getting 2 title shots of the 4. He didn't even not deserve them he was just in the right place at the right time.
It's not easy to say, I think we can only speculate, which may vary for other clarifications. I'll mention three names: Michalczewski, Ottke and De La Hoya. Michalczewski: He had a long reign as WBO light heavyweight world champion (1994-2003), while Roy Jones became WBC light heavyweight world champion in 1997. In my opinion, with only one world title, Michalczewski would have had a much shorter reign because he would have lost to Roy Jones Jr. Ottke: He was world champion at super middleweight from 1998 to 2004, Joe Calzaghe from 1997 to 2008. With only one world title, we would have had only one world super middleweight champion, Joe Calzaghe, not Ottke. De La Hoya: The Golden Boy lost to Trinidad in 1999 and to Mosley in 2000 at welterweight. Then, at super welterweight, with only one world title, he would have had to fight the only fighter he's avoided in his career, Winky Wright, and I think DLH would have lost. And at middleweight, Oscar would have fought Hopkins straight away instead of Sturm (to whom he clearly lost but was saved by the judges).
Good post. That's it, those guys that avoided the best cos they held a strap, they'd have to fight them or remain a contender.
Michalczewski would be the champion from 1997 when he beat Hill for the crown, so Jones would need to beat him first. Since there would be only one title, the fight would probably be made, if Darek didn't decide to held it hostage in Germany.
Guys like Vinny pazienza and Greg Haugen might not have ever been champs. Camacho might be a brief champion but his resume loses some status
