Voluntary defences should be abolished, ALL title fights should be mandatories or unifications

[NihonJim]

Enough of this politicking

If you are a world champion, your next fight should be the number one contender, if he isn't available then number two, nothing less than the highest ranked available contender.

What is the point of fights like Opetaia vs the 75th ranked cruiserweight.

This doesn't happen in any other sport, Spain don't win the world cup then defend it against San Marino in a voluntary.

Sort it out

[IronDanHamza]

Yeah but the mandatories are often worse.

[ryansmith5322]

I get what you're saying, but I think it depends on the division. Some mandatories are legit killers, others are unknowns with padded records or haven't fought top-tier opposition. You end up with paper challengers just because of alphabet rankings. poor bunny

[Toffee]

Handing complete power to the orgs only works if they're worthy of such power. Invariably they've shown themselves not to be. Plus we have multiple orgs in play. Without voluntaries you wouldn't get unifications.

Think back to some of the best fights of the last few years. Many of them (probably most) weren't mandatories.

The Spain analogy doesn't quite work. Soccer is an actual sport and the World Champions do then go into friendlies and qualifiers against lesser nations. They don't compete in World Cup finals every few months.

I do agree that mandatories are vital. Too many titlists have been able to dodge them. Mandatories are the fights where you don't get to hand pick the style of fighter you face. That's why they are tougher than people think.

I give credit to Anthony Joshua's unified title reign. He was beating mandatories almost constantly given he held three belts. But plenty of people criticise the standard of opponents he faced - well that is what you get with a constant string of mandatory challengers.

[SteveM]

Enough of this politicking

If you are a world champion, your next fight should be the number one contender, if he isn't available then number two, nothing less than the highest ranked available contender.

What is the point of fights like Opetaia vs the 75th ranked cruiserweight.

This doesn't happen in any other sport, Spain don't win the world cup then defend it against San Marino in a voluntary.

Sort it out

Boxing is politics/business/sport. Haven't you noticed yet?
If the Orgs organised their ranking in a non-corrupt way it might make sense. Until then it doesn't

[BustedKnuckles]

I think most of us agree with this idea. Champs should always fight next contenders in line.

But we also see that the orgs put popularity and back room money over good rankings, and certainly over matching the top guy against the next best.

So although other sports do this, boxing has long strayed from that path and is such a mess that it would need a complete overhaul to make right. But that overhaul is only in the fans' interest, because champs and orgs make big money fighting against low level opps and keeping the 0.

[Boxing 112]

Enough of this politicking

If you are a world champion, your next fight should be the number one contender, if he isn't available then number two, nothing less than the highest ranked available contender.

What is the point of fights like Opetaia vs the 75th ranked cruiserweight.

This doesn't happen in any other sport, Spain don't win the world cup then defend it against San Marino in a voluntary.

Sort it out

Isn't that basically what Wlad did during his reign. Does he get credit for it?

[drablj]

Enough of this politicking

If you are a world champion, your next fight should be the number one contender, if he isn't available then number two, nothing less than the highest ranked available contender.

What is the point of fights like Opetaia vs the 75th ranked cruiserweight.

This doesn't happen in any other sport, Spain don't win the world cup then defend it against San Marino in a voluntary.

Sort it out

i absolutely agree. it's the one thing that would have the most impact. this random matchmaking is just boring and a waste of time. boxers nowadays have too few fights. let them be important at least.

[Joseph]

No argument here. Other than the absolute nightmare amount of backroom overhaul that would need miracling into existence, Champs should fight Mandatories. If the non-Mandatories are sound/better than those in line, then get in line. Cut through it with the gloves even.

[The D3vil]

I think a better way of doing this is that you are obligated to fight a mandatory at least twice a year.

If you want to have a stay busy fight in between that, then do you.