Moving up vs Reigning as Champion

I am ever in favor of settling accounts in full before moving on. Cleaning out your division should be priority #1 unless you're having trouble making the weight anymore. No other reason for moving up is really valid to me. Chasing a payday higher up? Eh, okay, but you gotta eat the veggies on your plate before you have dessert.

 

I say moving up. Beating bigger guys boosts your P4P ranking, and shows you're more skilled. This is especially true if there's better competition at the higher weight.

Many of the best fighters ever moved up in weight and beat bigger guys: SRR, SRL, Harry Greb, Henry Armstrong, Pernell Whitaker, Sam Langford, and Roy Jones Jr, just to name a few.

 

I like dominating the weight you became champion in more. Having one undisputed champion in a weightclass makes all this interim, super and whatnot belts of the alphabet soup meaningless, which I like

 

:good

 

moving up in todays era is misleading and BS most of the time.

they jump up a division a fight a guy that just got there themselves as they were in the division below together for the last few years
so they are not really fighting a bigger guy

 

Robinson spent 5 years cleaning out welter, then spent nine cleaning out middleweight.

Jones didn't spent long at MW or SMW but he beat the most important guys there (Hopkins and Toney) along with some other decent names before "committing" to light heavy, spending eight years and twice as many fights there and thoroughly cleaning it out (avenging his only loss and beating everyone there was to beat with the exception of Tiger M) between McCallum and Tarver I. He did get cute with the "skill over size" thing moving up to beat a weak HW title holder in Ruiz, but that didn't really prove anything other than "ATG smaller man beats mediocre and stylistically handicapped paper champ bigger man" which, eh.

Sweet Pea spent just two years as lightweight champ but in that span unified all three belts over nine fights - and spent the rest of his career, past his prime, at welter (excepting two bouts at 154lbs), in fourteen straight title bouts, winning most of them. He did, however, "diss" 140lbs and could have stayed longer there and fought Tszyu or met Chavez earlier.

Leonard is remembered for his feats at welterweight, plain and simple - with the Hagler showdown as the cheery on top, maybe, but that isn't a "move up" after three years' retirement. As for his exploits past that - well, beating Lalonde for the 175lb title even though it was a catchweight doesn't prove anything. Nobody considers Leonard a top h2h SMW or LHW, historically, nor should they.

 

So, you don't think Jones's win over Ruiz was that impressive?

He also didn't fight Rocchigiani at LHW.

 

and not to forget, they'd probably fight at a catchweight, basically an invention of boxing's two top primadonnas. An invention which opened up the sport to even more of this lawyer types, like Arum or Haymon

 

Not terribly. Significant, yes, but not terribly impressive all considered.

 

Jones would have gotten BRUTALLY knocked out by Lewis.

 

guys like
chris john
Omar Narvaez
and even Marco Huck
are content to defend their trinket titles 20 times with no unification
that doesnt say much for legacy when there can be up to 8 belt holders at their division

WBC
WBC interim
WBO
WBO interim
WBA regular
WBA interim
WBA Super
IBF

if you decide to defend your "belt" against fighters other than guys who have those other titles, youre always fighting the 9th best guy in the division , assuming the best all have belts

 

you mean like Cotto vs Canelo for the middleweight title at 156 catch weight?
yep, great point :good

 

i guess it depends if "where" the money is at....

some fighters go up for the money fights...

others stay if the division is packed of fighters that bring in the money...

bottomline is moving up is better for the legacy unless your a heavyweight...

 

I was always impressed reading about lineal champions loosing their title and moving up towin another lineal belt(s).
Usually a loss at the top hints at the downfall.