How boxing would look today with the 8 original divisions

A single sanctioning body Hey sure, but why was the WBC created, originally? Unless you can guarantee that a sole sanctioning body is going to be free of corruption or bias for a particular country's fighters, there will ALWAYS be pressure for another, fairer sanctioning body. Only 8-9 Weight classes Again, sure... But let's talk about the consequences of imposing it today. You'd have shorter reigns, calendar-wise, because defenses would be more frequent (so many worthy challengers demanding their turn) and the cumulative damage sustained by fighters would be far more severe --and a ripe target for public criticism. Same day weigh-ins Yet again, sure. I'm a proponent of this. However, we can't avoid discussion of WHY the rule was changed. It was a compromise between integrity of the weight classes and ring safety, because of all the draining going on. The sensible solution would have been monthly weigh-ins for all registered fighters INCLUDING fight night itself, but it brings its own problems. h. I think reducing sactioning bodies is the most feasible. Thanks for the Green K by the way.

I figured 101 wouldn't hurt. :D This would be the prerequisite to Puglistic History 101. If your original 8 divisions test scores included Carlos Quintanna as WW or Roy Jones as current LHW champ.. You likely don't get into the 101.

I always said that four world title belts would be perfect, if we only had 8 instead of 17 weight classes. Too many quality fighters would get shut out or have to wait forever, if there was only one champion per weight class. What boxing should really work on is cut down on weight divisions, especially below 126. Agree, there's far too many division below 126.

You forgot discussions and polls on what size Manny Pacquios head is. Or whether Cotto weighs 155 or 160 on fight night. :friday:

I always said that four world title belts would be perfect, if we only had 8 instead of 17 weight classes. Too many quality fighters would get shut out or have to wait forever, if there was only one champion per weight class. What boxing should really work on is cut down on weight divisions, especially below 126.

wow...now that's hard to be on top///

At a glance here is my call on the champs for the original 8 divisions: Bantamweight: Nonito Donaire Featherweight: JML/ Caballero. Can't decide. They'd have to fight Lightweight: JMM or Pacquiao if chose to campaign at the lower weight. Welterweight: Mayweather Jr. seems like the obvious decision but the Mayweather of today might not fight the people necessary to earn the spot. Supposing Mayweather was still over selective about his opposition I would say Mosley is the most likely candidate for champ in this division. Middleweight: Kelly Pavlik Light Heavyweight: Chad Dawson Heavyweight: Wladimir and Vitali both since they don't fight eachother. Looks about right. I think Mayweather would be the Welterweight king though. He would be forced to fight the best.

So much is made of fighters like De La Hoya, Mayweather, and Pacquiao. Guys that go up the scales and win multiple titles. But I got thinking about how much harder it would be if we only had the 8 traditional divisions. Here's what the boxing landscape would look like starting at Bantamweight (I skipped Flyweight, sorry). Just the top guys. Batamweight - Hasegawa, Johnny Perez, Nonito Donaire, Darchinyan, Montiel, Agbeko Featherweight - Caballero, Juanma, Vasquez, Rafa Marquez, Chris John, Elio Rojas, Luevano, Gamboa, Rocky Juarez Lightweight - Robert Guerrero, Soto, Juan M. Marquez, Guzman, Reyes, Valero, Katsidis, Demarco Welterweight - Pacquiao, Hatton, Bradley, Campbell, Juan Diaz, Maidana, Khan, Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Cotto, Margarito, Mosley, Berto, Clottey Middleweight - P. Williams, S. Martinez, Kirkland, Spinks, Cintron, Angulo, Phillips, Pavlik, Sturm, Mundine, Geale, Winky Wright, N'Dam N'Jikam Light Heavyweight - Abraham, Froch, Bute, Kessler, Bika, Dirrell, Ward, Taylor, Stieglitz, Allan Green, Andrande, Miranda, Dawson, Jones Jr., Hopkins, Cloud, Pascal, Diaconu, Tarver, Johnson, Henry, Cleverly Heavyweight - Basically the same except add Cunningham and a couple others. Looking at this and how many times old school fighters fought, I would say it was a lot harder back then. Because there's less titles and less glory to be spread around, you get better fights more frequently. I can only dream. At a glance here is my call on the champs for the original 8 divisions: Bantamweight: Nonito Donaire Featherweight: JML/ Caballero. Can't decide. They'd have to fight Lightweight: JMM or Pacquiao if chose to campaign at the lower weight. Welterweight: Mayweather Jr. seems like the obvious decision but the Mayweather of today might not fight the people necessary to earn the spot. Supposing Mayweather was still over selective about his opposition I would say Mosley is the most likely candidate for champ in this division. Middleweight: Kelly Pavlik(beating Taylor twice and Miranda is better IMO than Winky off a long layoff and Andy Kolle) Light Heavyweight: Chad Dawson Heavyweight: Wladimir and Vitali both since they don't fight eachother.

Being an "old-school 8" guy myself I think this is a great thread and something that can produce some very interesting discussions. Poet Thanks poet, it's better than talking ppv numbers and drawing ability.

Congrats on a clever thread that I hasn't already been created 100 times over. I figured 101 wouldn't hurt. :D

So much is made of fighters like De La Hoya, Mayweather, and Pacquiao. Guys that go up the scales and win multiple titles. But I got thinking about how much harder it would be if we only had the 8 traditional divisions. Here's what the boxing landscape would look like starting at Bantamweight (I skipped Flyweight, sorry). Just the top guys. Batamweight - Hasegawa, Johnny Perez, Nonito Donaire, Darchinyan, Montiel, Agbeko Featherweight - Caballero, Juanma, Vasquez, Rafa Marquez, Chris John, Elio Rojas, Luevano, Gamboa, Rocky Juarez Lightweight - Robert Guerrero, Soto, Juan M. Marquez, Guzman, Reyes, Valero, Katsidis, Demarco Welterweight - Pacquiao, Hatton, Bradley, Campbell, Juan Diaz, Maidana, Khan, Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Cotto, Margarito, Mosley, Berto, Clottey Middleweight - P. Williams, S. Martinez, Kirkland, Spinks, Cintron, Angulo, Phillips, Pavlik, Sturm, Mundine, Geale, Winky Wright, N'Dam N'Jikam Light Heavyweight - Abraham, Froch, Bute, Kessler, Bika, Dirrell, Ward, Taylor, Stieglitz, Allan Green, Andrande, Miranda, Dawson, Jones Jr., Hopkins, Cloud, Pascal, Diaconu, Tarver, Johnson, Henry, Cleverly Heavyweight - Basically the same except add Cunningham and a couple others. Looking at this and how many times old school fighters fought, I would say it was a lot harder back then. Because there's less titles and less glory to be spread around, you get better fights more frequently. I can only dream. Congrats on a clever thread that I hasn't already been created 100 times over.

That would be crazy. There would be tons of shit talking Mofo's too. But there would also be great fights and even more hatred between fighters that would make a lot of fights brutal because everybody would want to display what they have 100% in order to get above their peers. I think even though you'd have less belts, they would be defended more frequently. Dudes can't be sitting on titles when there's big names hunting them down.

Imagine this scenario with only 1 belt per division... That would be crazy. There would be tons of shit talking Mofo's too. But there would also be great fights and even more hatred between fighters that would make a lot of fights brutal because everybody would want to display what they have 100% in order to get above their peers.

Imagine this scenario with only 1 belt per division... Now that's incredible, but even with the same belt situation and less divisions it would be much better. The more feasible solution nowadays would be to get rid of belts though, not divisions.

Agreed, my favourite weighclass's are basically welter and light welter at the moment, combined it would be immense. Light Heavy's are looking good too! Light heavy is amazing in this format. Combining SMW and LHW made one hell of a division. Same with welter. Divisions like LW don't look great because SFW is down right now.

Welterweight and Light Heavyweight are amazing in this format. Agreed, my favourite weighclass's are basically welter and light welter at the moment, combined it would be immense. Light Heavy's are looking good too!

I'm good with that. In fact, I'd favor fighters having to weigh in at the appropriate weight for each day a week prior to the fight at a random time each day with with no more than a pound or two variance from the contracted weight. That way there would be no "drying out" to make weight. Poet That's a little much I think because some guys make weight at different times.

In my book if fighters like Hatton have to try and get an advantage like that in order to win then they don't deserve to be successful. Poet We have to remember though, that everyone would need to do same day weigh ins. So even though a guy like Hatton would be forced to fight at WW or MW, naturally the other guys in those divisions would have the same disadvantage. So maybe a guy like Edwin Valero would be at WW, so Hatton wouldn't be at as big of a size disadvantage.

Not only that, bring back same day weigh-ins so fighters will actually be fighting in their true divisions instead of signing for a Welterweight and showing up as a Light-Heavy. Poet This would make guys like Clottey, Hatton, and Pacquiao move up in weight. In Pac's case, it probably means he would've been less likely to fight in those first couple division (flyweight, bantamweight). Guys like Floyd Mayweather and Hopkins would benefit the most from this as they traditionally walk around near their fighting weight anyway. But take a guy like Hatton, he probably wouldn't be a great fighter or nearly as successful as he was. Hatton is a small guy but his walk around weight is very high compared to his fighting weight. Hatton would be forced to fight at welterweight or middleweight, and it would have been hard for him to succeed.

Including Flyweight, Pacquiao can still be gunning for his 5th title in as many divisions. That is more amazing than 7 titles in different divisions today! True, but not completely true. As shown here, each division would have better depth, therefore it would be harder to get a title. It would take someone much longer to conquer divisions in this format. For instance, Pac wouldn't have been able to just beat David Diaz and call it a day at LW. He'd have to beat several opponents and the best in the division. Not saying he wouldn't beat them, just that it would be harder, and in all likelihood take much longer.