We've been going down this road for some time. With multiple "champions" in more weight divisions than ever, and an increasing unwillingness for the top athletes to fight and determine who's really the best, boxing is becoming less sport and more "sports entertainment." Forget the bad decisions for a moment. They've been a plague on the sport since the beginning. I'm talking about the counterfeit competition, the paper belts and lack of objectivity. Could you imagine if for some cockamamie reason the NE Patriots played the AZ Cardinals this weekend in the Super Bowl? Not because they won their respective playoff games, but because the NFL deemed it so. Who would want to watch that? Yet, as boxing fans, we're continually handed this exact garbage on a regular basis. We've become so accustomed to it, few even complain anymore.
What got me started on this rant? Looking through the listings of current champions in every division, that's what. The consensus best fighter at 122, Guillermo Rigondeaux, no longer holds a single belt. Did he lose them in the ring? No. He was stripped for "inactivity." Now, I'm no longer really a fan of Rigo. He lost me with his last appearance, a performance so inexcusably boring I just couldn't take it anymore. But the guy is still the best in his weight class. Why is he not champion? Because boxing isn't a sport. It's a sport in the way pro wrestling is a sport. So let's discuss who would win between the #4 and #15 rated fighters in a division. The "sport" obviously doesn't give a damn who's the best.
What got me started on this rant? Looking through the listings of current champions in every division, that's what. The consensus best fighter at 122, Guillermo Rigondeaux, no longer holds a single belt. Did he lose them in the ring? No. He was stripped for "inactivity." Now, I'm no longer really a fan of Rigo. He lost me with his last appearance, a performance so inexcusably boring I just couldn't take it anymore. But the guy is still the best in his weight class. Why is he not champion? Because boxing isn't a sport. It's a sport in the way pro wrestling is a sport. So let's discuss who would win between the #4 and #15 rated fighters in a division. The "sport" obviously doesn't give a damn who's the best.
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