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Thank you. The history of the sanctioning bodies has been a lifelong passion of mine. There have been so many shady moves that fans either don't remember or haven't been watching long enough to know about. There are probably plenty of posters here that have no idea Oscar De La Hoya headlined HBO for the vacant IBA "world" championship and he was announced as a "five time world champion" after winning the title.
Every time Bob Arum loses control, he props up another organization. He's the #1 reason the IBF exists, the #1 reason the WBO exists, and came very close to getting all the major players to pull out of the IBF in favor of the IBA. And the networks go along with it because they want title fights. It's up to the fans to say stop the madness and just go back to only recognizing the original titles.
Our best hope is Haymon gaining a monopoly so boxing can have one clear top title the way MMA does with UFC.
Otherwise, you could merge the WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO tomorrow and it wouldn't matter because Arum would just hop in bed with the IBO and HBO would suddenly recognize the IBO. So as long as multiple factions have TV and financing, you will have multiple titles.
But if Haymon is successful in squeezing HBO out of the business, it's checkmate. We'll finally have 1 recognized major title in the US and then Haymon will build more overseas alliances. Sure the alphabelts will survive in Germany, etc, but there won't be enough money for all of them to survive.
IBA, WBU, etc eventually go away because there's just not enough money to make it worth it.
Let's not forget that when Americans start grabbing up the WBO titles too, Europe just started recognizing the WBU. TV networks are always going to want champions.
Every time Bob Arum loses control, he props up another organization. He's the #1 reason the IBF exists, the #1 reason the WBO exists, and came very close to getting all the major players to pull out of the IBF in favor of the IBA. And the networks go along with it because they want title fights. It's up to the fans to say stop the madness and just go back to only recognizing the original titles.
I'd love to see one organization or even two recognized, believe me. Just goes to show that the promoters control everything in boxing. It takes something away from it.
Otherwise, you could merge the WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO tomorrow and it wouldn't matter because Arum would just hop in bed with the IBO and HBO would suddenly recognize the IBO. So as long as multiple factions have TV and financing, you will have multiple titles.
But if Haymon is successful in squeezing HBO out of the business, it's checkmate. We'll finally have 1 recognized major title in the US and then Haymon will build more overseas alliances. Sure the alphabelts will survive in Germany, etc, but there won't be enough money for all of them to survive.
IBA, WBU, etc eventually go away because there's just not enough money to make it worth it.
Let's not forget that when Americans start grabbing up the WBO titles too, Europe just started recognizing the WBU. TV networks are always going to want champions.
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