Comments Thread For: De La Hoya Says Unified Champions Will Be Complicated

[racostaa]

Of course will be complicated unifiy the divisions when promoters and fighters are ducking the real challenges when the probabilities to win are no good. No more excuses, do the LSC vs Rigo fight, cowards.

[OnePunch]

If the 3 most important organizations are willing to consolidate one unified champ per division then the next big obstacle would be promoters and TV Networks who are most reluctant to lose their big share intensified by having so many champions. Yes, it is going to be complicated and this task only can be successful if the boxing followers support the whole idea (which it seems to me it is the only way to make boxing a more respected professional sport because to the general population boxing is confusing, rigged and/or corrupted).

I HIGHLY doubt they would eliminate any of their current titles. My guess is they would create a new WBC-WBA-WBO-IBF Super Champ, in addition to all the other existing titles......

Edit: Which wouldnt be all that bad if a few additional rules were put in place, such as:

1. All existing "super champion" titles are eliminated
2. "Interim" titles are only used when the current champion is medically unable to fight.
3. A vacant WBC/WBA/WBO/IBF Super Title may only be contested between 2 current champions within that division.
4. A WBC/WBA/WBO/IBF Super Champion must defend the title at least once every 12 months against another champion in the same division, or the title becomes vacant.
5. No catchweight bouts allowed.

[PACnPBFsuck]

Mares... I think.

Naw, he's a Haymon fighter.

[Dafoo]

Oh great. The sanctioning bodies may unite to create, yet another title belt... A Super Duper Champion. After that, the other organizations will unite and create their title belt; Super Duper Pound 4 Pound Champion. Which means there will be two Super Duper Champions per division instead of one. So the Interim Champions, Super Champions and Regular Champions will have to accept that they are not Super Duper Champions and therefore can't possible be considered the legitimate champion of their division.

[Lou Cipher]

The biggest problems of unification are fighter's health, Fighters A not having as much "money" as fighter B, Fighters not willing to break their promotional contract, fighters not willing to give up 90% of the financial take in fights etc. etc.

[285Kid]

I'm telling you know everybody going after the WBO title from the moment this new rule start

[Scipio2009]

Currently boxing has seventeen weight divisions, but in terms of world champions, in so many cases, that numbers must be multiplied by several sanctioning bodies.

Earlier this week, the Presidents of the WBC, WBA and IBF held their second meeting in Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. This took place prior to the first ever Women's Boxing Convention organized by the WBC.

The three organizations discussed the idea of work towards a goal of having one unified champion per division and the culmination of this will be a Tournament of Champions.
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Simple fix .... purse bid the fights.

55/45 split to the fighter whose promoter wins the bid. Having only three organizations working together muddles things a bit, bit still doable:

200+: Klitschko vs Stiverne/Wilder/Jennings winner
200: Krzysztof Wlodarczyk vs. Denis Lebedev vs Hernandez/Afolabi winner
175: Stevenson vs Hopkins
168: Ward vs Froch/Dirrell winner
160: Cotto vs Golovkin/Soliman winner
154: Floyd Mayweather (Molina can't even get into the country)
147: Floyd Mayweather vs. Brook/Khan winner
140: Danny Garcia vs Lamont Peterson
135: Figueroa/Bey winner vs Crawford/Abril winner
130: ???
126: Gonzalez/Mares vs Donaire/Waiters/Gradovich/Lomachenko
122: Rigondeax/Santa Cruz vs Frampton/Quigg
<122: ???

will take time, but is doable

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Boxing has a laundry list of problems but if they can somehow work this issue out I could live with the rest of the BS.

That's how i feel.. If they could give us a legit champ in each division, that regularly fights legit contenders, I would be so happy... That's my major beef with boxing.. I can deal with everything else

[KTFO]

All 4 sanctioning bodies hold a collaborated tournament. WBC vs WBO, WBA vs IBF, winners face each other for the championship of said weight class. Every current titleholder gets a chance to be undisputed champion of their division, every sanctioning body gets their chance at representing the belt and just about every promoter/manager/network/etc would be involved. Any current titleholder that doesn't participate loses their chance and the next highest rated fighter in the same organization fills his spot an so on. Undisputed champ has to defend every 12 months against the #1 contender of another sanctioning body or vacate the title. If vacated, the 3 remaining sanctioning bodies hold a tournament together or make an arrangement to fight for the vacated title and the former sanctioning body goes to the back of the line.

For example, Crawford wins 135 and represents with the WBO belt as the only lightweight champion. He has to defend within 12 months against the IBF/WBC/WBA #1 contender or get stripped. If he defends and loses to the WBC #1 contender (lets just say) Omar Figueroa than Omar is the new undisputed champ, the WBC represents the lightweight title, WBO goes back to #1 contender status.

No more hiding behind paper titles, no more lame mandatories, no more vacant title championship bouts gifting titles, sanctioning bodies would rate fights more accordingly if they wanted the title back and promoters, networks and fighters would be forced to cooperate or lose the chance at representing the undisputed champ.

[ShoulderRoll]

...networks and fighters would be forced to cooperate or lose the chance at representing the undisputed champ.

Exactly. I could see networks and promoters not wanting to participate because their guys might lose. But the pressure of not being recognized as THE real, unified champion of a weight class will be increasingly felt.

We could be in for some interesting times in the years ahead.