Comments Thread For: IBF President Explains The Current Status Of Their Heavyweight Belt

[zod66]

Geni kameni

[pollywog]

Here are the current IBF rankings

1	Filip Hrgovic	Croatia (HRV)
2	NOT RATED
3	Anthony Joshua	England (ENG)
4	Daniel Dubois	England (ENG)
5	Jared Anderson	United States (USA)
6	Frank Sanchez	Cuba (CUB)
7	Agit Kabayel	Germany (GER)
8	Zhang Zhilei	China (CHN)
9	Joseph Joyce	England (ENG)
10	Efe Ajagba	Nigeria (NGA)
11	Otto Wallin	Sweden (SWE)
12	Arslanbek Makhmudov	Russian Federation (RUS)
13	Fabio Wardley	United Kingdom (GBR)
14	Martin Bakole	Congo (COG)
15	Justis Huni	Australia (AUS)

Oh dear. Looks like Joseph Parker hasnt paid his subs but it's good to know they're keeping the Number 2 slot for him anyway.

[famicommander]

Oh dear. Looks like Joseph Parker hasnt paid his subs but it's good to know they're keeping the Number 2 slot for him anyway.

Parker is the WBO interim champion, which means he can't be ranked by the WBC, IBF, or WBA.

[Boxing 112]

That 'undisputed belt' is a tacky insult & Usyk should have refused to lift or wear it lol.

Aaaand once again, the IBF can devour a male chicken fr.

The major 4 are even uglier. At least with this wwe looking one he doesn't need to pay a fee for it

[pollywog]

Parker is the WBO interim champion, which means he can't be ranked by the WBC, IBF, or WBA.

...but if he was he'd be number 2 based off his last 2 wins being better than Joshuas.

[OnePunch]

You either HAVE rules, or you dont. The WBC is a good example of what happens when you just do whatever makes the most in sanctioning fees.

Bottom line is everyone knows the IBF does not allow contracted rematches. Fury and Usyk did it anyway, for the money. So obviously THEY dont care about it, so why should anyone else? Even if Hirgovic is below average, he followed the rules, fought his eliminators, and is owed a shot. So either pay him to step aside, or get stripped.

And what difference does it make anyways? If Fury wins the rematch, or if its even close or disputed, they will fight a THIRD time. And what, then everyone else gets to pause their careers AGAIN for yet another 6-8 months??

[famicommander]

...but if he was he'd be number 2 based off his last 2 wins being better than Joshuas.

The sanctioning bodies don't rank fighters based on quality or merit. They rate fighters based on who has satisfied whatever arbitrary hoops they've put forth and played politics the best.

The IBF's #2 spot is open because they keep their #1 and #2 spots open by default unless two other fighters in the top 15 fight an eliminator. That's the only way to get an IBF #1 or #2 spot. That's one of the reasons (the others are their 2nd day weigh in policy and their strip-happy reputation) the IBF usually has garbage mandatory challengers you've never heard of; because name fighters would rather go through the WBC, WBA, or WBO if they can. But they all have their own problems, many worse than the IBF.

WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO rankings are utterly worthless in all contexts.

That's why you have to look at independent rankings. TBRB, The Ring, ESPN, BLH, places like that. They're the only ones ranking the best fighters in a division from 1-10.

[paul77]

You either HAVE rules, or you dont. The WBC is a good example of what happens when you just do whatever makes the most in sanctioning fees.

Bottom line is everyone knows the IBF does not allow contracted rematches. Fury and Usyk did it anyway, for the money. So obviously THEY dont care about it, so why should anyone else? Even if Hirgovic is below average, he followed the rules, fought his eliminators, and is owed a shot. So either pay him to step aside, or get stripped.

And what difference does it make anyways? If Fury wins the rematch, or if its even close or disputed, they will fight a THIRD time. And what, then everyone else gets to pause their careers AGAIN for yet another 6-8 months??

This exactly.

With the massive influx of money from PBC/DAZN/Saudi and promoters having exclusive agreements with networks, it's become harder than ever for guys to get title shots due to them.

When 10s of millions of dollars are getting tossed around, sanctioning bodies are happy to also toss the rules out the window. They'll do whatever.... create fake (franchise/regular) belts to avoid stripping guys, not call mandatories for years, etc.

Look at how many years Whyte was #1 contender for Wilders belt, and the WBC just let Deontay not fight him because PBC had a lot of money didn't want to work with Matchroom.

You can't complain about Charlo being allowed to squat on his belt for YEARS and then also be mad that the IBF enforces its rules.

[famicommander]

Look at how many years Whyte was #1 contender for Wilders belt, and the WBC just let Deontay not fight him because PBC had a lot of money didn't want to work with Matchroom.

This isn't what happened at all. Whyte ducked multiple eliminators and a straight up title shot.

He was ordered to face Kubrat Pulev in an IBF eliminator. Whyte ducked it. Pulev later got a shot at the unified title.
He was ordered to face Luis Ortiz in a WBC eliminator. Whyte ducked it. Ortiz later got two shots at the WBC title.
He was offered a chance to face Dominic Breazeale, who already had a title shot from winning an eliminator, for Breazeale's shot. Whyte ducked it, Breazeale got his shot.
He was offered a chance to face Anthony Joshua for the unified title when Miller popped for PEDs, but he ducked it, Ruiz took it, and knocked Joshua out.
He finally did face Rivas in an eliminator and finally won mandatory status, but popped for PEDs.
Then he lawyered his way out of PED trouble, got his mandatory status restored, and got knocked out by a 4000 year old Povetkin.
Then he beat Povetkin in the rematch.
Then he got his shot against Fury and got knocked out again.

The WBC actually WAS following its own rules and if Whyte had followed them as Breazeale and Ortiz did, he'd have gotten his shot. All he had to do was fight an eliminator and he'd have been declared mandatory challenger. When he finally did fight one, he was instantly declared mandatory and they even gave it back to him after he popped for PEDs and then got KTFO.

And he also ducked an IBF eliminator and a straight up title shot in the same timespan while complaining the entire way.

[garfios]

IBF should not sanction the rematch. We asked for the undisputed and we got it: one name, one face, one champ. Let's move on and allow a mandatory have his shot. Fighters fight for mandatory positions for a reason and should be encouraged.

I respect the IBF for their strictness, but their timing has to be right and needs improvement, else they risked depriving us of an Usyk/Hirgovic fight

All that shouldn't stop Usyk/Fury rematch though. Those two can fight as many times as they wish but not at the expense of the rest of the division.

I agreed 100%, all sanctioning bodies should do the same.