No more Junior and Super Divisions?

[Left Hook Tua]

The weight classes do more good than harm. People would realize that if they changed.

There would be no Ricky Hatton or Joe Calzaghe for example.

no. hatton and calzaghe would still be there.

but calzaghe for example would have been fighting hopkins , trinidad , taylor , pavlik at middle or jones and tarver at light heavy instead of mikkel kessler and lacy!

[Scott9945]

Getting rid of the weight divisions is a terrible idea. Getting them down to just one champion each is another story. The only division I would drop would be strawweight.

[Left Hook Tua]

Getting rid of the weight divisions is a terrible idea. Getting them down to just one champion each is another story. The only division I would drop would be strawweight.

why?

please elaborate.

how many fights don't get made because a junior welter doesn't want to move up to welter or vice versa?

would calzaghe still be undefeated if he fought at middle instead of super middle? or if he fought in roy's backyard of 175?

how is floyd's 5 division titles at 130,135,140,147,154 more impressive than hank's 3 at 126 , 135 and 147 when there was only ONE world title?

boxers now are jumping up or down in weight classes all the time. can't win a belt at 147? jump down to 140 or up to 154 and look for a weaker opponent that holds a title. there you go! instant CHAMPION! 17 weight divisions , 4 major orgs if you count the wbo. that's 68 champions! most people would be hardpressed to name 68 boxers let alone champions.

[Scott9945]

why?

please elaborate.

how many fights don't get made because a junior welter doesn't want to move up to welter or vice versa?

would calzaghe still be undefeated if he fought at middle instead of super middle? or if he fought in roy's backyard of 175?

how is floyd's 5 division titles at 130,135,140,147,154 more impressive than hanks 3 at 126 , 135 and 147 when there was only ONE world title?

boxers now are jumping up or down in weight classes all the time. can't win a belt at 147? jump down to 140 or up to 154 and look for a weaker opponent that holds a title. there you go! instant CHAMPION! 17 weight divisions , 4 major orgs if you count the wbo. that's 68 champions! most people would be hardpressed to name 68 boxers let alone champions.

My response is, why not? You would have a lot less title fights. Some of the best fights of the last 30 years have happened at 122, 130, 140, 154, and 168. It has been shown over and over that a step up in weight is still a major obstacle in many cases.

Boxing has changed a lot since Henry Armstrong. There will never be a three division champion like that again. People will judge Floyd Mayweather on an all time basis on his skills and wins, not his title collection. I clearly implied that I was against having four champions in any division. There should only be one. Calzaghe would never have been a middleweight. Now after cleaning up his division he is moving up. I just don't see a downside to it. Going back to eight divisions in boxing makes no more sense than going back to eight team leagues in baseball.

[Left Hook Tua]

My response is, why not? You would have a lot less title fights. Some of the best fights of the last 30 years have happened at 122, 130, 140, 154, and 168. It has been shown over and over that a step up in weight is still a major obstacle in many cases.

Boxing has changed a lot since Henry Armstrong. There will never be a three division champion like that again. People will judge Floyd Mayweather on an all time basis on his skills and wins, not his title collection. I clearly implied that I was against having four champions in any division. There should only be one. Calzaghe would never have been a middleweight. Now after cleaning up his division he is moving up. I just don't see a downside to it. Going back to eight divisions in boxing makes no more sense than going back to eight team leagues in baseball.

title fights that don't mean anything i can do without. just because it's for a title doesn't make it any better. give me 1 ibeabuchi-tua non-title fight over 10 ruiz-valuev title fights i say.

you make good points but i'd have to disagree with you. those fights at 122 , 130 , 140 , 154 and 168 would still happen they'd just happen at 126 , 135 , 147 and 160. right now with so many divisions and so many orgs a champ can fight a lot of nobodies and say look i beat a top 10 contender. how many titlists have we seen with an undefeated record and everyone says how great he is then get exposed later on?

imagine vazquez , both marquez , morales , barrera , guzman , larios , ayala , pacquiao all at 126 a few years ago. not all of them could be champion even with 4 organizations. they'd all have been going to war with each other for those 3-4 belts. that would've been great.

and going back to 8 weight classes is not the same as the nba going to 8 teams. having 17 divisions in each org is like the nba , cba , aba , nbadl all having 17 teams a piece and being equal and never playing each other.

[The Hammer]

What boxing needs is not fewer weight division, but fewer sanctioning bodies.

I would like to see the WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF merge into one organization. They could still have minor titles like the EBU and the USBA, but there should be only ONE world title in each weight division.

[KESSLER]

What boxing needs is not fewer weight division, but fewer sanctioning bodies.

I would like to see the WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF merge into one organization. They could still have minor titles like the EBU and the USBA, but there should be only ONE world title in each weight division.

Yes.

ONE WORLD CHAMPION!
I'm sick of 4 belts in like 1 divison... You're a world champion, no doubt.
But you're not THE World Champion if there's 3 other dudes carrying around a title calling themself World Champion too.

[Scott9945]

title fights that don't mean anything i can do without. just because it's for a title doesn't make it any better. give me 1 ibeabuchi-tua non-title fight over 10 ruiz-valuev title fights i say.

you make good points but i'd have to disagree with you. those fights at 122 , 130 , 140 , 154 and 168 would still happen they'd just happen at 126 , 135 , 147 and 160. right now with so many divisions and so many orgs a champ can fight a lot of nobodies and say look i beat a top 10 contender. how many titlists have we seen with an undefeated record and everyone says how great he is then get exposed later on?

imagine vazquez , both marquez , morales , barrera , guzman , larios , ayala , pacquiao all at 126 a few years ago. not all of them could be champion even with 4 organizations. they'd all have been going to war with each other for those 3-4 belts. that would've been great.

and going back to 8 weight classes is not the same as the nba going to 8 teams. having 17 divisions in each org is like the nba , cba , aba , nbadl all having 17 teams a piece and being equal and never playing each other.

The examples you gave were of heavyweights, which doesn't apply to this topic. Title fights may not mean anything to you, but they do mean a lot to the TV networks who keep boxing alive. If there was no 122 lb division, we may never have had those three classic Vazquez-Marquez fights, at least not on TV. I'm not saying you don't have a point, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in this case.

[Left Hook Tua]

What boxing needs is not fewer weight division, but fewer sanctioning bodies.

I would like to see the WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF merge into one organization. They could still have minor titles like the EBU and the USBA, but there should be only ONE world title in each weight division.

i'd like to see both. less weight divisions (do we really need a minimumweight?) and one organization. they could all get together and make one organization with several regional belts to give everyone in europe and asia (not just americans) a decent shot at the belt.

make the ONE world champion's mandatory against the winner of a european champion , north american champion , south american champion and asian champion eliminator?

[Left Hook Tua]

The examples you gave were of heavyweights, which doesn't apply to this topic. Title fights may not mean anything to you, but they do mean a lot to the TV networks who keep boxing alive. If there was no 122 lb division, we may never have had those three classic Vazquez-Marquez fights, at least not on TV. I'm not saying you don't have a point, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in this case.

it was an example of a non title fight because of the matchup and skill of the fighters being more entertaining than a title fight which makes you shake your head and wonder how one is a champ and the other one a top contender.

how about morales-pacquiao I? that was a non-title fight. burton-ward?

just because they say title fight doesn't mean more people will watch. people watch because they are fans of the fighters. that goes with boxing and non-boxing fans alike. the organizations like having 17 divisions because that guarantees 17 division champs that pay sanctioning fees. vazquez-marquez could've still happened they just wouldn't have been title fights. it's one thing to jump from 122 to 126 it's another to jump from 126 to 135. instead of guys having to jump in weight to chase the moneymakers they could all be fighting at the same weight in my opinion. very few guys can jump from division to division with less divisions. wouldn't you want to see juan manuel and pacquiao and barrera stay all at 126 and fight it out with guzman , valero , john , vasquez?