Is Unification important? should boxers get praised for unifying?

[Larry the boss]

post and discuss

[Citizen Koba]

It's one of the few concrete achievements that can be pointed to in the sport - victories over quality opponents is better in my book, but the stock of fighters goes up and down like a tart's knickers and the vast majority won't even be remembered in a decade or two. Hell, even staying on top long enough to jump through all the hoops required to get all the other beltholders in the ring (or stripped) while taking care of business with mandos is something of a monumental task in this day and age.

[Poppo168]

I think it's something boxers should aim for, I'd wanna get all the belts in the division, even if you only hold them momentarily and get stripped it's an achievement

[Fists_of_Fury]

0 praise for fake unification fights like WBA Super vs WBA regular champ.

[Cheek busting]

Yes, and no.

Obviously they shouldn't be blindly praised for beating somebody with a belt.

However, titles are used as bait to "hype up fights," and many casuals, and the like, are convinced by one guy being a worthy champion because he has a belt (case in point - Deontay Wilder. Lol dude won the belt off a fat bum, who in turn won the belt in a vacant fight against another fat bum).

So I have no problem with a real champion wanting to clean up all the riffraff to prove he is the one and only champion.

AND, this will prevent guys from cherrypicking titles - i.e. going for the weakest link just to get a belt. If there's one, unified champ, he's gotta be legit, so u gotta go through him.

[Sweet Pea 50]

My problem a lot of the times these days is who is unifying what,

Does the strap make the fighter?

Or is it the fighter that legitimizes the strap that is being represented?

This fighter is ranked #15 for this belt, but ranked #1 for this other one.

After a long round of golf and a nap, this other guy ranked #3 gets the shot, but since this guy ranked #6 lost a technical draw to this other guy ranked #27 and still has his functional eye sockets...



There are too many belts, too many fossils behind the growth of the sport.

Boxing is still in the 20th century, here in the US.

[Eff Pandas]

Its not unimportant, but clearly belts mean less than any time since I've been watching boxing & therefore unification means less than its ever meant.

Strength of schedule is the most meaningful thing to me for a champion (or even non-champion) & I've seen guys with or without multi titles do that well, but typically I think the guy with 2+ titles is handicapped once they've won that 2nd, 3rd or 4th title cuz of the subpar mandatory's issue that a guy with one belt doesn't have.

[asgarth]

Well I think in most cases unification fights are top fights.

In heavyweight it would be Wilder Vs Parker Vs Joshua/Klitschko. With the expection of Ortiz, the fights are between the top guys.

Cruiserweight: Briedis Vs Lebedev Vs Usyk Vs Gassiev = All top fights
175: Stevenson Vs Ward
168: DeGale Vs Ramirez Vs Zeuge = Zeuge is garbage, but 168 is currently a weak division, dont see many bigger fights
160: Golovkin Vs Saunders = Good fight, but Canelo/Jacobs are better fights
154: Charlo, Hurd, Alvarez, Lara = Hurd is not a real player yet, but the other guys fighting against each other are all top fights
147: Thurman, Brook, Pacquiao = selfexplanatory
etc.

So all in all, most unifaction fights are higher quality fights. 4 belts often times prevent top fights from happening, because on of the so called "champions" is makes enoug money and is happy to defend against bums.

One belt =>
- contenders have only one path for a belt and thats the top dog in the division
- contenders need to fight real title eliminator in order to get a shot at the belt

[asgarth]

Its not unimportant, but clearly belts mean less than any time since I've been watching boxing & therefore unification means less than its ever meant.

Strength of schedule is the most meaningful thing to me for a champion (or even non-champion) & I've seen guys with or without multi titles do that well, but typically I think the guy with 2+ titles is handicapped once they've won that 2nd, 3rd or 4th title cuz of the subpar mandatory's issue that a guy with one belt doesn't have.

If i recall correctly, three of the four sanctioning bodies came together to make rules for the mandatories of unified champions. So that they pick a common mandatory challenger and not each sanctioning body their own. But whether they really implement it, is another question. lol

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

its all relative, who the bout is against a dud then who cares? its just bragging rights kinda like how Erik morales name on garcia resume is.

I say if its a dud than go after the best fight that can be made for you instead of the unification.