I just read the "Razor" Ruddock thread about unifying the HW division and it got me thinking. In Tyson's era everybody feared "Iron" Mike, but he could still unify the belts because of the mini tournament to do exactly that. That was then, but nowadays unifying the division is EXTREMELY difficult even if you're the best by a mile. Even ATG Lennox was only "undisputed" for 1 lousy fight! :deal Main reasons: if you're good enough most other beltholders will avoid you like the plague, and milk their alphabet belt for a couple of years before accepting the challenge... in the mean time others will do the same. Worse is if one belt chances hand many times, with all "champs" looking for easy challenger. So you have to remain champ for a long, long time waiting patiently until you can add another belt to your collection while in the meantime disposing of all your challengers. And then there's POLITICS... If it isn't hard enough to beat the challengers and fellow beltholders, there's still the possibilty you'll get stripped of your belt because one of the alphabet orgs want a champion of their own nationality or bend over for a powerful promoter who slips them a couple of grand. So it's not just skill, you also need luck or the right nationality and promoter. So it has become soo much harder since the 90's in any division to unify all the belts, that the idea of a 90's contender pulling it off today sounds downright ridiculous to me.
Yes, that is why boxing needs the likes of Kessler, Froch, and Lacy. Boxers that are not afraid to face the adversity and danger of fighting the best abroad. Because if everyone were like Ward and Ottke...boxing would be a **** sport.
It's funny how people criticise Hopkins' middleweight reign saying he fought a lot of soft opponents... most were mandatories. If he'd have ignored them and been stripped of most of his belts they'd have criticised him for that.
if Vitali retired, I don't think Wlad would have too much trouble to add the WBC belt to his collection
That depends if the "new champ" agrees to fight him before he loses his belt again or Wlad retires or slips himself.
he doesn't have to agree, he would have to face Wlad if he was mandatory anyway, I doubt Wlad would have any problems with beating anyone from the top 10 ranked by the WBC: 1. Chris Arreola 2. Denis Boytsov 3. Bermane Stiverne 4. Mariusz Wach 5. Alexander Dimitrenko 6. Johnathon Banks 7. Chauncy Welliver 8. Tyson Fury 9. Tomasz Adamek 10. Manuel Charr
Bwahahahahahaha Glass Waldjoe has no chance against Welliver. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jXcmQH6Hbc[/ame]
But that's exactly what I mean... Wlad will NEVER become WBC mandatory because he's a beltholder, and that's the biggest issue here. The WBC champ doesn't have to face him if he doesn't want to and still be "champ". And it's even worse... Some alphabets have stripped boxers for unifying instead of fighting a crap mandatory. (mostly an excuse to give the belt to somebody they like more) It doesn't matter anymore if you're sooo much better as the others in your division because it's not completely in you own hands! :-(
That is not his fault though... That is the stupidity of the belt organizations... for some reason they take people off their lists when they become champion in another organization. This creates the poor lists we see today, and means that the best fights are harder to get.
