Question about boxing...

[nitepanther]

Okay I've been doing the best I can to understand this sport and I've learned a lot of the terms and some of the boxers and their accomplishments. However the one problem I have is what is with all these titles? I hear there's like 4 or 5 sanctioning bodies or something like that, which I figured would be fine because different organization have their own belts but there's not like one top org to follow. Example, like PRIDE and UFC have their own belts and then there's smaller MMA orgs but you can tell which organization is the most valued or important. What's going on? I mean I hear and see these jr. division championships, interim champion, vacated titles and it's so damn confusing . Try going to order a boxing ppv and you can pay 50 for a world title fight, OR a world title fight, OR a world title fight. Well which f**king one .

Can someone explain to me what the different titles mean (mainly the jr division and interim champions) and how other the titles got vacated and how these different organizations got started? And if it's not too much trouble which organization has the most pretigious belts? I mean I love boxing but it's kind of hard to jump right in when you don't know what's going on and even though I hardly watched back in the 90s it never seemed that disorderly.

I apologize for asking so much questions but it's kind of annoying to try and understand a new sport and see on like 5 different channels people who are so-and-so champion of some division in some org and I can't figure out like who's doing what in this sport.

Any help would really be appreciated, a link even so I can get started understanding all this.

BTW, I put this thread in history because I wanted to know like how these different belts came about and how it got to the state we're at now, I just figured it'd be more appropriate.

[K-DOGG]

Firstly, NONE of the sanctioning bodies have any credence over any of it's contemporaries because they have all soiled their reptuations over the years. They all have reasons for ranking various fighters; and mostly, it is suspected, that those reasons are green with faces on them and pass hands under tables, if you get my drift.

Now, historically speaking...briefly, the WBA is the oldest of the sanctioning bodies. It began in the early 1920's as the NBA (National Boxing Association) and expanded in the 1960's to the World Boxing Association. The WBC was formed in 1962, I believe. The IBF gained recongition when Larry Holmes accepted them as his sanctioning body in 1984...or '83, not sure.....by giving up his WBC belt and taking the IBF instead. The WBO came about in the late 1980's and is the least respected of the four.

An interim champion is a man who steps in when the champion can't defend his title for health reasons, usuall. The interim champion takes over the post as Champion, should the Real champion not regain his healt and defend his title within an alotted period of time determined by the sanction body whose belt he holds.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

Once you find a real Champion...not a paper titlist....follow his career and see who beats him...that is the next champ.

THE ONLY WAY TO BE THE CHAMPION, IS TO BEAT THE CHAMPION...ALL ELSE IS POLITICAL BS.


Hope that helps.

[Southpaw Stinger]

Whoever holds the ring belt is usually considered the real champ and he only loses that title if he is defeated in the ring or retires. Forget all these worthless alphabet belts like WBC WBO WBA IBF IBO WBU WBF - too many belts and not worth considering.

[Crazy Dude]

A junior division is just another division. There used to be fewer divisions and when they added new divisions rather than think of a new name they just added modifiers to existing division names. i.e., when they made a division between the lightweight and welterweight divisions they called it junior welterweight or super lightweight.