People say Tank is not a 3 division champ due to the WBA"regular" title

[kafkod]

Nah GGG picked up the regular in 2010 or so when he was a nobody in international terms... problem being he should have fought Sturm to become the WBAs 'World' champion but Sturm didn't want the fight (for whatever reason) and the WBA obligingly - and reportedly for cash - changed their rules to accomodate him. Now generally when an incumbent refuses to defend they would lose their title, so Golovkin should have arguably become 'the' WBA Champ in 2010, but in a dicey bait 'n' switch what actually happened was that the WBA instead elevated Sturm to Super under their New '5 defense' rule and gave GGG the now effectively meaningless 'World' title.

Something you didn't mention there is that GGG already held the WBA interim world title when Sturm fought a lower ranked opponent than Golovkin for the new, re-jigged version of the super title.

[GhostofDempsey]

Considering all the time you put in bashing GGG, it would be nice if you held Tank to the same standard. Most fans agree these second tier titles aren't anything more than sanctioning bodies using them for fees and promoters hyping their fighter as a "champion".

[kafkod]

Why spend time trying to keep track of the WBA's nonsense? They have a Super Title and Golovkin and Tank didn't have it in these instances.

It's nonsense for the WBA to have multiple world champions in every division. I'm saying don't try to keep track of it, because it makes no sense. Look at the fighters involved in each case and use your own judgement

[kafkod]

Considering all the time you put in bashing GGG, it would be nice if you held Tank to the same standard. Most fans agree these second tier titles aren't anything more than sanctioning bodies using them for fees and promoters hyping their fighter as a "champion".

GGG did everything he possibly could to try to become The WBA champion in his division. You can't say that about Tank.

[BZBEE]

he is a 3 division regular champion just like the belt says.
If you have a mickey mouse belt, you are the mickey mouse belt champion.

[Citizen Koba]

Just out of curiosity. Do you know if they actually have rules regarding vacant super belts that they are handing out lately?

I know santa Cruz got one rewarded for beating miguel flores lol.

But they somehow didnt allow machado to win corrales super belt because.... corrales didnt make weight.

instead they then randomly sanctioned davis vs inactive and coming off a loss Cuellar for the super belt. Boxrec somehow doesnt have that title fight marked down as a vacant title fight. Who knows why.

No, they basically abandoned having actual rules for it after the debacle of the '5 defense rule'.

The current rules just give a generic catch all saying - to paraphrase - 'the Super champ is whoever the hell we say it is and it means whatever we say it means.'. Probably for the best actually since that's what they were doing anyway cos at least it saves trying to untangle the labyrinthine layers of bullturd they were devising to justify it previously.

18. Super Champion Status.

In exceptional circumstances, the Championships Committee and the President may designate a Champion (other than an Interim Champion) as a Super Champion. The President and Committee may establish criteria for a Super Championship. In such a designation, the Committee President may determine conditions and requirements of defenses and retention of such a title, including, but not limited to, the following:


a. Mandatory defense period;

b. Sanction fees, including purse fees forboth title and non-title bouts;

c. In what manner and at what time an official contender for the Super Title shall be named; and

d. Such other conditions as the Committee and President deems warranted. An official contender for a World Championship Title shall not thereby be considered to be an official contender for a Super Championship.

A Super Champion who loses a title or non-title bout shall have no right to be ranked thereafter in the weight division. If the Committee and President designate a Super Champion at the time the boxer is a World Champion, they may also suspend the provisions of Rule C.27 and other rules applicable to a World Championship inconsistent with the conditions and requirements under which they have designated a Super Champion. If a President and Committee designate a Super Champion, the vacant regular title need not be filled.

EDIT: Actually it looks like the 5 / 10 defense idea does remain technically in play to a degree - at least on paper, but it's been rendered utterly superfluous since they've already designated Super-Champions in every single division (except Flyweight) irrespective of unification staus or the number of defenses made.

2.Super Belts. Similarly the Association will grant Super Belts to those champions that make 5 or 10 (if it was the case) successful defenses of his title. These Super Belts will be named after those champions that have been able to defend their title 5 or 10 times. See Appendix C for a listing of boxers who are qualified for a Super Belt

[Eff Pandas]

Fook belts. Being #1 in any division is more impressive than winning belts in more than one division & never being #1.

[Mammoth]

Look at the fighters involved in each case and use your own judgement

Both instances they had Regular Titles. I'm not looking at anything differently because of the fighter involved.

[kafkod]

Both instances they had Regular Titles. I'm not looking at anything differently because of the fighter involved.

But one had a Regular title because he was denied a chance to fight for the Super title, which didn't even exist when he became the Interim champion.

The other made no attempt to fight for the Super title, and targetted the regular champ instead. Are you really saying that makes no difference?

[Citizen Koba]

I'm keeping it simple, Koba....

Wish the fkn WBA had kept it simple too, but regardless we're still left with a situation where sometimes the World is legitimate and sometimes it ain't. In general I say the World counts unless there's an incumbent Super Champ in which case the World just becomes a trinket. Far from perfect but it;s simple enough.

In fact in some ways just by simply being so profiligate with their 'Super' titles the WBA has now partly resolved the issue since they've now installed one in every division except Flyweight*. Only problem now is many of them are awarded with no consistency at all and may or may not be passed on upon a loss, division change or a title being lost on the scales entirely at the whim of the WBA. And they still have a minimal mandatory requirement which is basically all that legitimises a title in the first place. Still, to cover all bases and future eventualities I reckon my rule of thumb works pretty well.

* Poor Artem, dude probably couldn't afford the upgrade or something....