Why do people still care about Championship belts?

[KO'er]

Why were belts even invented in the first place? Total lunacy.

[bojangles1987]

Most fighters need belts because without them, no one would have any reason to fight them. You think anyone would ever fight Golovkin if he didn't have a belt?

I care about belts because I want those guys to have chances. I'd love it if there were less, but there are not less, and there won't be any time in the foreseeable future. I care when fighters who need that chance and earn it won't get it because of politics.

[G_Child_123]

One belt/universal governing body would make things much simpler in terms of defining who the champion is and the rankings of the division.

Just having the WBA/WBO/IBF/WBC would be fine as well, although interim and super champions just dilute things even further.

The true problem for me lies with the governing bodies not having any power to dictate who should fight who, it's all in the hands of the fighters and promoters.

[Barcham]

Why do people still care about the World Series or the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup? Because in sports, we love to know who the best is. Because the athletes need to have a goal to work towards. Ask Cotto or Mayweather or Wlad or Golovkin or any other champion why they care about winning titles. Ask Quillin how he feels today about the title he gave up and the fact that he will probably never hold another again.

[Slick_Rick]

Why do people care about branding?

You could get the same thing for cheaper with out the label.

End of the day its all about image, perceptions and that apparent prestige of own something other people want and desire.

[New England]

agendas, mostly.

He the mandatory doe.

[Southpaw93]

Is this a not so subtle attempt trying to justify Khan not fighting Brook?

[Fetta]

Why do people still care about the World Series or the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup? Because in sports, we love to know who the best is. Because the athletes need to have a goal to work towards. Ask Cotto or Mayweather or Wlad or Golovkin or any other champion why they care about winning titles. Ask Quillin how he feels today about the title he gave up and the fact that he will probably never hold another again.

When a world series, superbowl, or stanley cup champion gets stripped for not paying fees you can compare them till then belts in boxing are irrelevant.

To show you, bradley just won the WBO belt. Same belt Floyd won in May and never lost.

[Weebler I]

The reason there is 4 belts and not 1 is because the champions in the past consistently refused to fight the next best.

If you don't fight the next best, what's your champion belt worth?

It's like Martinez was the champ and he steadfastly refused to fight Golovkin.

We knew who the champ was but if it wasn't for the WBA belt, Golovkin wouldn't have been a champ at all and the ducking Martinez would have been the only one with champion status.

If Martinez had cherrypicked better and there was only one belt he could still be sole champion today, that's the kind of situation having 4 belts avoids.

I will say though that 4 is probably too many, we only need 1 with credibility that forces it's champ to fight the next best every time but this is boxing, it's never happening.

[Fetta]

The reason there is 4 belts and not 1 is because the champions in the past consistently refused to fight the next best.

If you don't fight the next best, what's your champion belt worth?

It's like Martinez was the champ and he steadfastly refused to fight Golovkin.

We knew who the champ was but if it wasn't for the WBA belt, Golovkin wouldn't have been a champ at all and the ducking Martinez would have been the only one with champion status.

If Martinez had cherrypicked better and there was only one belt he could still be sole champion today, that's the kind of situation having 4 belts avoids.

I will say though that 4 is probably too many, we only need 1 with credibility that forces it's champ to fight the next best every time but this is boxing, it's never happening.

Then once we figure out who the "champion" is, however they got the belt, then we get to fogure out if they are the interim, regular, super, emeritus, or maybe even the super-duper champion