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Oleksandr Usyk - "Undisputed" no more.
Strip or renounce. Same thing.
If you conduct business poorly, people begin to believe that there's no better way to do it because for a generation of people it's always been thus.
So Oleksandr Usyk became the first undisputed champ in the four-belt era when he beat Tyson Fury to claim the belts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last month.
The much ballyhooed event lasted exactly thirty-eight days.
"Undisputed" is certainly a fragile and fleeting thing when a sport allows legitimacy to be claimed by so many private, for-profit belt selling companies.
Fortunately for Usyk and the entire combat sports world, he is a heavyweight, and heavyweights uniquely, have a historically referencable linial champion, and Usyk alone, is it.
So that's what's behind that Linial title that younger fans get so mixed up about. To keep things honest and true.
But as a business, slapping a "world title" on the line; real or imagined, boosts the importance of a fight between contenders, which is what Dubois vs. Joshua will be.
Then; once that one's settled and the real championship rematch is decided in 1 or 2 more Usyk-Fury battles; we get to do unification all over again.
Until the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF decides they want their own "beltholder" without having to share Sanctioning Fees.
So long as fans aren't again distracted by all the shiny belts again, as was strongly in evidence on this board; then everything is AOK.
Strip or renounce. Same thing.
If you conduct business poorly, people begin to believe that there's no better way to do it because for a generation of people it's always been thus.
So Oleksandr Usyk became the first undisputed champ in the four-belt era when he beat Tyson Fury to claim the belts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last month.
The much ballyhooed event lasted exactly thirty-eight days.
"Undisputed" is certainly a fragile and fleeting thing when a sport allows legitimacy to be claimed by so many private, for-profit belt selling companies.
Fortunately for Usyk and the entire combat sports world, he is a heavyweight, and heavyweights uniquely, have a historically referencable linial champion, and Usyk alone, is it.
So that's what's behind that Linial title that younger fans get so mixed up about. To keep things honest and true.
But as a business, slapping a "world title" on the line; real or imagined, boosts the importance of a fight between contenders, which is what Dubois vs. Joshua will be.
Then; once that one's settled and the real championship rematch is decided in 1 or 2 more Usyk-Fury battles; we get to do unification all over again.
Until the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF decides they want their own "beltholder" without having to share Sanctioning Fees.
So long as fans aren't again distracted by all the shiny belts again, as was strongly in evidence on this board; then everything is AOK.