Realistic prospects for a return to undisputed champs in a few divisions?

There is really only one answer to fix the problem. It is the same thing that caused the problem ... money. It would take someone or some organization with enough bucks to consistently render the alphabet groups irrelevant. You would start by saying the four champs have a tournament, and the winner is undisputed champ. You make the money big enough for both winners and losers and they would all drop their belts to go for this one.

 

I doubt it. Too many organizations making money on a multiple belt system. The only thing that could potentially end it is a complete boycott from fans. And given that you have people right now paying good money for pay per view fights that traditionally would have been held on regular program television, I don’t see any reason to think it will ever happen.

 

No chance. Boxing is 100% corrupt a glance at the score cards of the Canelo v Plant fight tells you all you need to know about the probity of officials.

 

I’ve always believed that those in boxing would make far greater money with a simpler system: one world champion in each of nine weight divisions, along with one universally accepted legitimate set of rankings. The simplicity of the old tried and true system would be far less confusing to average sports fans and boxing would, with some decent marketing, regain the mass appeal it once had. More people interested = more money.

 

Sweet, I went headlong into boxing in '73. We had 11 weight classes and there were 2 champs from flyweight to junior welterweight. The other 5 divisions were sole champions and I could name every champ and their top contenders. When you mentioned its former mass appeal, you are absolutely correct. A sport that is absolutely impossible to follow loses its luster with the common man on the street, let alone a die-hard like you or I. Back then the newspapers covered everything on boxing. Man, I remember the writeups and photos galore on Shavers-Ellis, Quarry-Lyle, Ali-Norton and a media interruption of our favorite programming with a "we interrupt this program with a special sports bulletin. George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier in the 2nd round to win the world heavyweight title. We now return you to your regular programming." Now can you imagine that today? I could imagine all viewers looking at each other saying, "Usyk? Who's Usyk?" I agree with you that a streamlined 11 weight classes (I went with what I started out with) with one champ would draw much greater interest because people would once again be able to follow the sport.