Battle of the Belts: Which Sanctioning Organization Claims the most REAL Champions?

Which Sanctioning Organization do you feel has the most REAL champions? The answer may surprise you: http://theboxingempire.blogspot.com/2011/03/battle-of-belts-which-sanctioning-body.html The Battle of the Belts: Which Sanctioning Body Claims the Most "Real" Champions? It's not a little secret that one of Boxing's biggest problem is the number of belts per weight division. While some people argue that there are too many weight classes in general, more frustrating is the fact that there is no single "true" champion per weight class. Instead, it's the WBC Super Champion, WBA Silver Champion, Ring Magazine #1 Rated, and Yahoo's top ranked guy. In the end, the process most significantly hurts the "little guy" in boxing: the man who has beaten everyone, but still can't seem to get a title shot. And by title shot, we mean to face the most significant champion (regardless of title) at that weight. So we at The Boxing Empire have decided to ask a question: Which of the Sanctioning Organizations currently has the most legit champions? We know this is kind of like asking: Who is the tallest midget? But still, we wanted to give it a try. To be a legitimate champion, you need to be the highest ranked guy by non-sanctioning bodies. Since the BoxRec rankings are all screwed up, we decided to use the rankings of Dan Rafael of ESPN, Fight News and The Ring Magazine. So we took the champions of each Sanctioning Organization and compared them to the Ranking of these guys. Now, what about the many Vacancies in these organizations? Well, to be fair, we created a rule that "no champ, is better than a fake champ." Therefore, we awarded four points each time the Sanctioning Champ matched the champ of these guys, and one point every time the sanctioning organization didn't list a champion. While not naming a champion doesn't necessarily merit receiving a point, by making it one point vs. four points, we feel nothing is completely offset. (Editor's Note: At the time of this posting, there were actual no Vacant belts.) Sources: We found the list of the Sanctioning Organization Champions here. Before they start crying because we didn't use their multiple champions, we're sorry guys but you can ONLY have one guy per weight class. Don't get greedy. We got the ESPN Rankings here. The *********.com rankings here. And the Ring Magazine Rankings here. Here's what we came up with. Strawweight WBO: Donnie Nietes IBF: Nkosinathi Joyi WBA: Kwanthai Sithmorseng WBC: Kazuto Ioka Fight News: Nkosinathi Joyi ESPN: N/A Ring Magazine: Nkosinathi Joyi Point(s) to: IBF (8) Junior Flyweight WBO: Giovani Segura IBF: Luis Lazarte WBA: Giovani Segura WBC: Gilberto Keb Baas Fight News: Giovani Segura ESPN: Giovani Segura Ring Magazine: Giovani Segura (C = Actual Champion) Point(s) to: WBO (12) WBA (12) Flyweight WBO: Julio Cesar Miranda IBF: Moruti Mthalane WBA: Luic Concepcion WBC: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Fight News: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam ESPN: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Ring Magazine: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (C) Point(s) to: WBC (12) Junior Bantamweight WBO: Omar Narvaez IBF: Cristian Mijares WBA: Hugo Cazares WBC: Tomas Rojas Fight News: Omar Narvaez ESPN: Hugo Cazares Ring Magazine: Hugo Cazares Point(s) to: WBO (4) WBA (8) Bantamweight WBO: Nonito Donaire IBF: Joseph Agbeko WBA: Anselmo Moreno WBC: Nonito Donaire Fight News: Joseph Agbeko (note: they still had Fernando Montiel listed, but we'll consider that an error) ESPN: Nonito Donaire Ring Magazine: Nonito Donaire Point(s) to: IBF (4) WBO (8) WBC (8) Junior Featherweight WBO: Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. IBF: Steve Molitor WBA: Akifumi Shimoda WBC: Toshiaki Nishioka Fight News: Toshiaki Nishioka ESPN: Toshiaki Nishioka Ring Magazine: Toshiaki Nishioka Point(s) to: WBC (12) Featherweight WBO: Juan Manuel Lopez IBF: Yuriorkis Gamboa WBA: Chris John WBC: Hozumi Hasegawa Fight News: Chris John ESPN: Juan Manuel Lopez Ring Magazine: Juan Manuel Lopez Point(s) to: WBO (8) WBA (4) Junior Lightweight WBO: Ricky Burns IBF: Mzonke Fana WBA: Takashi Uchiyama WBC: Takahiro Ao Fight News: Takashi Uchiyama ESPN: Jorge Solis Ring Magazine: Mzonke Fana Point(s) to: IBF (4) WBA (4) Lightweight WBO: Juan Manuel Marquez IBF: Miguel Vazquez WBA: Brandon Rios WBC: Humberto Soto Fight News: Juan Manuel Marquez ESPN: Juan Manuel Marquez Ring Magazine: Juan Manuel Marquez (C) Point(s) to: WBO (12) Junior Welterweight WBO: Timothy Bradley IBF: Zab Judah WBA: Amir Khan WBC: Timothy Bradley Fight News: Timothy Bradley ESPN: Timothy Bradley Ring Magazine: Timothy Bradley Point(s) to: WBO (12) WBC (12) Welterweight WBO: Manny Pacquiao IBF: Jan Zaveck WBA: Vyacheslav Senchenko WBC: Andre Berto Fight News: Manny Pacquiao ESPN: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ring Magazine: Manny Pacquiao Point(s) to: WBO (8) Junior Middleweight WBO: Sergei Dzinziruk IBF: Cornelius Bundrage WBA: Miguel Cotto WBC: Saul Alvarez Fight News: Miguel Cotto ESPN: Sergei Dzinziruk Ring Magazine: Kermit Cintron (WTF?!) Point(s) to: WBO (4) WBA (4) Read the rest and see the answer here: http://theboxingempire.blogspot.com/2011/03/battle-of-belts-which-sanctioning-body.html

Comments (10)

i guess i'd have to go with The Ring.

15y ago

TheBoxingEmpire

The WBO is the best of the alphabet belts, but that's like saying that Stalin was more saintly than Hitler and Pol Pot. He was, but that ain't saying much. Lol!!! Stalin, Pol Pot, WBO, Gilberto Mendoza = all bad for humanity

15y ago

120

They're all sh!t

15y ago

Dave_Rado

Green belt WBC used to be most prestigious belt but nowadays it's joke Jose Sulaiman crooked ass mofo, WBA is joke they got super champion, regular champion, interim champion, IBF always come up with some bull**** as soon as you champion u have to defend it against some bum or you're stripped, I have to go with WBO least known belt but hey what can u do. The WBO is the best of the alphabet belts, but that's like saying that Stalin was more saintly than Hitler and Pol Pot. He was, but that ain't saying much.

15y ago

Dave_Rado

I always considered the WBO or WBA to have the good champions in the different divisions. The WBC has, for the most part, the paper champions. At the end of the day the only boxing title that means anything is the lineal title, and if the boxing media in general would cotton onto that, and stop publicising the alphabet title holders in preference to the lineal title holders, then boxing would be a far healthier sport. Of the belts, because of the fact that The Ring belt is generally based on who the lineal title holder is, The Ring belt is the only one that means anything; although The Ring do get it wrong occasionally, unfortunately. And the media needs to put more pressure on fighters who are ranked #1 and #2 to fight each other for The Ring belt - far too many Ring titles are vacant because there isn't enough public demand on fighters to fight each other for it.

15y ago

goblin213

Wbo.......

15y ago

memento126

15y ago

jaskieee

I would usually say the WBC, but after the Alvarez farce and their diamond conspiracy i dont even pay attention to the belts until someone has 4 of them

15y ago

Null

I always considered the WBO or WBA to have the good champions in the different divisions. The WBC has, for the most part, the paper champions.

15y ago

AP9824

1 wbo 2.wbc (*) 3. wba 4 ibf Did The dirty work

15y ago