Are there "world" championship organizations that you feel are better than the others? Growing up, for me at any rate, there were three "world" titles that seemed to be equal to me (though obviously not to boxers like Bowe that trashed titles), then the WBO came aboard. There have been a lot of other "W" boxing organization, though WBO has manged to stay on.
WBA WBC IBF WBO That is all. I do accept the WBO since they have now been around for 25 years and had some of the better matches of the last 10 years believe it or not.
The belts themselves don't mean all that much these days, its the fighter that makes the belt, not the other way round. The quality of opponent the belt's being pitted against is what defines its worth.
The fighter makes the belt Ishe Smith has the iBF belt, but he isn't a champion. Donaire has the WBO and he is a champion.
If the best fighter was always champion, then a fighter could lose the title outside the ring... Anyway, to me 'World titles' are everything 'alphabet', be that WBA, WBC, The Ring, so called 'linear' or WBU and WAA... They have there value, and if fighters can get a better pay day because of it, then good. But a 'World title' is not the same as being 'World Champion'. To be 'World Champion' you have to remove 'reasonable doubt' in your claim, then you become the 'generally considered World Champion'.
Pretty much this. I'm not a huge believer in linearity in this day and age. For example I had Moreno as the best titlist in the bw division but given a combination of his inactivity and his loss to mares combined with Yamanaka's red hot form, i now rank Yamanaka number 1. Before the 80's the number 1 was usually the champ in my opinion. Given the proliferation as belts there's a few people claiming to be champ and without unifications it's a case of pick the one you think is most deserving for me.
Organizations hardly matter. In some cases the WBO champion is the best of the lot. I prefer 3rd party consensus from Ring Magazine, Box Rec, Fight News, and ESPN. If they all agree who the #1 guy is, that is good enough for me regardless of what belt he holds.
