Why Is So Much Emphasis Placed On Belts?

I mean, a few theories. When you start boxing you want to be "champion of the world," and that requires a belt." Also, they are a great bargaining tool. Sure you get taxed I think 3 percent of your purse, but the belt is generally going to be worth more than a 3 percent pay raise for having it.

 

Fighting names without belts is risky ... lets look on the DLH
... his a name >>>> Cotto
.... but is the win over DLH better than win over Cotto these days?

On the other hand Cotto would have no name if he would not
prove himself beating beltholders. Nobody would have any reward
beating Cotto after his lose to Margarito or if Cotto fought just
gatekeepers at 147 and never won the title over there.

This way or another, its always better to beat NAME with belt that
NAME without belt.

 

Ring Magazine is the only belt the matters. It is not perfect but it is much better than the crooked alphabet orgs.

 

Actually its not that simple, its definitely more marketable but Ring belt
may be a toy for trade. The example is Ring belt at LHW where the guys like
Winky Wright can fight for the Ring belt at the LHW not even being able
to reach the proper weight limit and never being able to defend this tile
against any other legitimate contender at that weight.

 

I agree 100%, This is why I put more emphasize on who beat who instead of whose the champion in whatever division

 

If its 7 belts from different divisions, then its a new record:hey

 

Name recognition most of the time start when a boxer can get hold of a belt (wheter the recognition is good or bad depends). Nobody heard of Froch or Dawson before they had a belt. The legacy afterwards, depends on what the fighter do after they won the belt, thus the belt in my opinion is just a tool not only to bargain. Champions can do everything with it:
-Fighting crappy mandatories and secure the belt from the rest of the world.
-Unifying which is almost always good
-Vacating to fight better opponents, this is very important because there are two differents effect. First of all, when a champ vacates it's belt to fight a stronger better, more recognised fighter. People would celebrate them for not being manipulated by ABC-belts, and thus they would be seen as true champions. But then again vacating could also be a sign of being afraid of the mandatory chalenger (Mundine not wanting to fight Kessler again)

Belts in other words are stepping stones but they do not create greatness, it's what beltholders do after they've won the belt.

 

Even then Ring Magazine IMO is the worst of the bunch, for several reasons the first being No Mandatories, When Vitali won the Title and was set to face Rahman he decided to push the fight back twice and retired, holding up the divison, you dont lose the ring title out of the ring.

Basicly this allows you to pick and chose who you want to fight and you will always be considered the Champ becuase the ignorant fans beleive this is the belt that holds meaning.

 

Even with your Reasons you listed it is STILL the pretty much only belts what matters:deal

 

I disagree. Mandatory fights have ruined Boxing. Look at Roy Jones for example all he did at Light Heavyweight in his prime was fight useless Mandatory fights. Very few times is a Mandatory opponent worth a crap. Look what Wlad Klitschko has been going through at Heavyweight having to fight Ray Austin and Tony Thompson. Those fights were a joke and he could have used those dates to fight legit contenders.

 

Belts are important to fighters, because unless you're in the rare class of elite boxers with name recognition, a big fan base, and a well known name, it's hard to make good money without a belt. It might not mean much to fans, but for a boxer having an ABC belt means more fights in the future and the bigger share of the purses involved.

Fans like the Ring belt, but consider the case of Joel Casamoyer. He won the Ring belt by beating Corrales, then sat inactive for over a year because the ABC stripped him of his belt. Had he not been stripped, he would have probably had two fights in that year and made the lion's share of the purse each time.