In an ideal world we would get an undisputed in every weightclass one division at a time with the champions dumping all the belts and becoming champion of ONE SINGLE OBJECTIVE governing body with a common sense top 10 and common sense rules. Or even better, just have it run by an AI. Boxing has been ruined by these belts, sanctioning bodies etc. You cant even explain boxing to a non-fan without a 2 hour lecture anymore. My girlfriend has been watching with me for months and still gets confused all the time
Short answer... not any time soon. I'd be semi happy if we could drop down to three main orgs/ belts. What we have now is absurd.
The problem is it costs nothing to keep a sanctioning body open. It's a PO box and a part time commitment for a handful of people with nothing better to do.
for sake of discussion here are some thoughts i have regarding sanctioning bodies. if we can't eliminate the sanctioning bodies, we should look into the fees they charge and how they are levied. create a global oversight that monitors and regulates the sanctioning bodies. - limit on the number of belts per weight division, - limit the number of weight divisions, - clear regulation on champions defending their titles in a reasonable timeframe, - how does a champion who had title stripped, get an opportunity to fight for the belt again - cap on sanctioning fees percentage to my limited knowledge there is currently no governing body who monitors or police the bodies.
Would be great if we could have half the number of divisions and 1 champion per, but sadly that is nothing more than a utopian pipe dream.
If the Saudi's invest in a UFC type organization structure it'd be possible. Only the Saudi's would have the money to get the top boxing stars to agree to something like that and mandate when they have to fight each other.
I think it's more likely we see more belts introduced than the number being reduced. Good news is that with fighters only fighting once per year, we still get to see lots of "title" fights. It would be good if all champs vacated and recognised only the ring belt as legit but that will never happen.
I don't want to disappoint you, or discourage you, but I think things will go in a different direction. There will not be 4 sanctioning bodies, but 5 (IBO). When? I do not know
They can have an undisputed championship and the winner gets the (Saudi) mega belt and drops all the rest of belts. You could only do it once or twice before the bodies freeze you out because they no longer get their 2-3% fees.
