My 2 bones to pick w/ boxing

[Contra]

The way I see it, we just have a different way to recognize champions and top contenders nowadays.

I view the four beltholders (if there are four) as being the top four fighters in a weight class. The top dog (Floyd, Ward, Gennady) is usually apparent regardless of how many belts they hold. So I see that guy as the champ, and the other belt holders as being the #1 ,#2 , and #3 ranked contenders.

In weight classes where the "top dog" position is disputed (Kov and Adonis at LHW, for example), the situation needs to be resolved with the two guys getting in the ring.

If only that happened more often...

[soul_survivor]

Well Ali held both the WBA and WBC titles, I'm not sure if they had separate belts at the time and announcers rarely identified them as separate bodies but these were titles which, at times, had been separate. Ali fought Terrel for one of these belts after he was stripped for the Liston rematch I believe. Not to mention Frazier was recognised as a champion by one organisation and Ellis by another. So the title has been split before.

Now the second point, I agree 100%. Having 4 so called champs per division is bad enough but to then have silver, interim, super and regular titles just adds to the confusion and lessens the prestige of being a champion.