Comments Thread For: Crunching Numbers: The Major Bodies, The Title Bouts

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Lyle Fitzsimmons - OK, folks… I’m searching for some common ground here.

As a means of initiating another discussion about what’s wrong with sanctioning bodies and how best to get it fixed, I figure we’ve got to at least have some agreed-upon foundations upon which to construct points.

So if it pleases the Tuesday morning masses, I’ll go with computer rankings.

Admittedly, though, it’s not everyone’s perfect fix.

And believe me, I’ve heard all the negatives from the logarithm jockeys out there.

But given the obvious lack of bias that may or may not influence lists not relying on soulless machines, I’ll take my chances.

Which brings me to today’s simple statistical analysis.

Using the IBO’s Top 100 as a best-available resource, I glanced back at the distribution of fairness when it comes to the fighters vying for championship status in the other four “major” organizations – namely the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO.

Going month by month through the first 5/12ths of 2010, I observed the digitally unbiased placements of challengers for titles recognized by those four – including the ever-dubious interim and super classifications – to come up with an average to show which group’s batch of contenders is most legitimate. [Click Here To Read More]

[ColWallace]

If the top ten or 15 fighters in the world boycotted these corrupt sanctioning bodies they, along and their rubbishy belts and useless rankings, would all disappear very quickly. Mayweather set the ball rolling snubbing the WBA before the Mosley fight. Would be great if other fighters followed suit as the only people who need these scumbag organisations to survive are the scumbags who run them.

[antrob]

This was a pointless article. I don't think you can take the IBO ranking seriously and use them for you averages. If any computer ranking has Peter Manfredo Jr. as their no. 9 contender at middleweight there is obviously something wrong with that system. This is just Lyle nut hugging the IBO again. He's to the IBO what Ronnie Nathanielsz is to Manny Piaoacqu

[fitzbitz]

Not sure I see the nut-hugging. No one claimed any organization was better than any other. In fact, it's strictly numbers.

As for Manfredo, if you look at the IBO list and take out Martinez, Sturm and Sylvester as WBC/WBO, WBA and IBF champions heading into May... who are the supposed middleweights drastically better than Manfredo and so deserving to be ahead of him at No. 9 instead of behind him?

I guess you'd prefer that guys like Billy Lyell (ranked 34th at 160) or Albert Sosnowski (ranked 30th at heavyweight) get passed off as Top 15 fighters by "major" groups and, presto!... qualify for title shots overnight. At least when the IBO matches its No. 20 fighter against its No. 25 fighter, it doesn't play games to make the ratings look like it's 8 vs. 12 instead.

But hey, if all it takes to get a thumbs-up from you is a little bait and switch with numbers, then I'm sure the "major" groups have a "diamond interim super emeritus silver" title bout this weekend that you're going to love.

Enjoy.

[dmcw]

Instead of using the mean average for the challenger rankings why not use the median? One challenger with a low/high ranking will have undue effects on the mean ranking when the number of fights is small. Median just picks the middle value from the list of rankings.

The median rankings for each body, using Fitz's article as my source, are:-
IBF 11.5
WBA 11.5
WBC 10.5
WBO 12.0
IBO 31.5

[giacomino]

IMO there are too few fights to use either the average or median to make an effective argument comparing the governing bodies.
The truth of the matter is each of the organizations allow absolutely horrid mismatches to be called "title defenses" by their champions because they bring in sanctioning fees. Fighters can get hammered in their previous fights and still get a title shot because the promoters of a champion want a patsy to slap around to pad their fighter's record.
At a minimum, they should ban defenses like Vitali Tajbert had in May, when he "defended" his WBC super featherweight title against a 35-year-old Hector Velazquez who had been KO'd in his previous fight and had lost three of his previous four bouts.

[antrob]

Not sure I see the nut-hugging. No one claimed any organization was better than any other. In fact, it's strictly numbers.

As for Manfredo, if you look at the IBO list and take out Martinez, Sturm and Sylvester as WBC/WBO, WBA and IBF champions heading into May... who are the supposed middleweights drastically better than Manfredo and so deserving to be ahead of him at No. 9 instead of behind him?

I guess you'd prefer that guys like Billy Lyell (ranked 34th at 160) or Albert Sosnowski (ranked 30th at heavyweight) get passed off as Top 15 fighters by "major" groups and, presto!... qualify for title shots overnight. At least when the IBO matches its No. 20 fighter against its No. 25 fighter, it doesn't play games to make the ratings look like it's 8 vs. 12 instead.

But hey, if all it takes to get a thumbs-up from you is a little bait and switch with numbers, then I'm sure the "major" groups have a "diamond interim super emeritus silver" title bout this weekend that you're going to love.

Enjoy.

You always say the IBO is better than all the others, what are you talking about? Your even doing it in your post. Maybe it such second nature to you to be a nut huger,that you don't even reliaze it now.

And I don't prefer the other organization over the other, in fact I don't pay attention to any of them. I just can't stand when a writer nut hugs like you do with the IBO and I'm calling you out on it, the same way I always call out Ronnie Nathanielsz when he writes about Manny Pacquiao.

[antrob]

Instead of using the mean average for the challenger rankings why not use the median? One challenger with a low/high ranking will have undue effects on the mean ranking when the number of fights is small. Median just picks the middle value from the list of rankings.

The median rankings for each body, using Fitz's article as my source, are:-
IBF 11.5
WBA 11.5
WBC 10.5
WBO 12.0
IBO 31.5

Because Lyle can't use them facts to nut hug on the IBO. This dude is bias when he writes about them.