How Much Does It Really Mean, To Be A World Champion Nowadays?

[N/A]

having more than one so-called champion per division undeniably hurt the sport

there's been multiple champions for over a hundred years

[Tony Trick-Pony]

There are 4 belts per division, and we're always seeing undeserving fighters holding one of them. Not only that, but these sanctioning bodies are sus. What happened to there only being 1 world title per division, that every fighter was clamoring for? Most of the champions now don't even hold their belts for long. They beat a paper champion, then get exposed by some challenger right after. Worst case scenario, these champions just straight up duck each other. These belts are like participation trophies. Now, if you wanna be the man in your division, you gotta get 4 belts. It's like the Tri-Force or something. Each belt is only a piece of what it means to be the world champion.

I had to take a break from troll threads, and get serious for once.

It gets hard to take people seriously when they say that two fighters are competing for the WBA "Regular" Title in a "World Championship Fight."

What's crazy is the reign length for most now. Adonis Stevenson I believe is the current longest-reigning champion, since 2013, which is respectable, but it seems like there is usually one or two champions of longer than that. Like TC just unified and then he's up to 147. I mean, no one at 147 is going to fight each other anyway. He could have reigned as 140 pound king for a year. It wouldn't have hurt anything. Most guys weight hop and no one holds any of the belts long anyways. The belts are just kind of there now.

[N/A]

What made Joshua big imo wass the fight with wlad, not the belts he received after. I admit it helps with the fame.

But you can't ignore that a big part of what made Klitschko vs. Joshua so huge was the fact that they were fighting for the unified heavyweight championship of the world!

If championships were so meaningless, we wouldn't have a Super Bowl. Two teams would just play on a random day with nothing at stake.

People play sports to win the championship. People watch sports to see who is going to win the championship. Yes there will always be a tiny percentage of fans who are nerds and don't care who the champion is, but there's a reason the fighters, promoters, managers and (most importantly) TV networks are obsessed with the championships. The sport completely revolves around them.

[N/A]

The thread is about being a world champ not a organizational champ. I mean the definition of champion is defeating all rivals and competition. And you can't do that at a world level without taking all the belts.

There are too many world championships in each division now to realistically win them all, with very very rare exception.

Two fighters in history managed to unify all four titles. Once the fourth belt became a requirement of being "undisputed," fighters decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try to become undisputed anymore. That's one of the biggest detriments caused by accepting the WBO. Unifying the division went from a regular occurrence to a near impossibility.

It wasn't that long ago that at any given time, the sport had four or five undisputed champions. Heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight in particular had lengthy runs with an undisputed champion, if not multiple.

You even had Winky at super welter & Tszyu at super light.

But undisputed champions are never going to be a regularly occurring thing again thanks to the horrible four belt era.

So just like tennis has multiple grand slams and golf has multiple majors, boxing has multiple world championships.

[CubanGuyNYC]

there's been multiple champions for over a hundred years

That would be news to me. I’ve never read about a heavyweight champion that rivaled Dempsey, for instance, nor a welterweight champ that contended with Robinson. Can you cite examples of historical championship rivalries, pre-1970s?

[GMAN SUPREME]

But you can't ignore that a big part of what made Klitschko vs. Joshua so huge was the fact that they were fighting for the unified heavyweight championship of the world!

If championships were so meaningless, we wouldn't have a Super Bowl. Two teams would just play on a random day with nothing at stake.

People play sports to win the championship. People watch sports to see who is going to win the championship. Yes there will always be a tiny percentage of fans who are nerds and don't care who the champion is, but there's a reason the fighters, promoters, managers and (most importantly) TV networks are obsessed with the championships. The sport completely revolves around them.

the super bowl is always played between the two best teams in the sport. in boxing an undeserving fighter can get a championship fight it happens all the time. championships in boxing don't mean as much as they do in the other sports. you have fighters who become bigger than the title belts dropping them whenever they please.

[GMAN SUPREME]

There are too many world championships in each division now to realistically win them all, with very very rare exception.

Two fighters in history managed to unify all four titles. Once the fourth belt became a requirement of being "undisputed," fighters decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try to become undisputed anymore. That's one of the biggest detriments caused by accepting the WBO. Unifying the division went from a regular occurrence to a near impossibility.

It wasn't that long ago that at any given time, the sport had four or five undisputed champions. Heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight in particular had lengthy runs with an undisputed champion, if not multiple.

You even had Winky at super welter & Tszyu at super light.

But undisputed champions are never going to be a regularly occurring thing again thanks to the horrible four belt era.

So just like tennis has multiple grand slams and golf has multiple majors, boxing has multiple world championships.

trade the wba in for the wbo and get rid of the wba at least the wbo doesn't have multiple belts.

[lightsout_finit]

There are 4 belts per division, and we're always seeing undeserving fighters holding one of them. Not only that, but these sanctioning bodies are sus. What happened to there only being 1 world title per division, that every fighter was clamoring for? Most of the champions now don't even hold their belts for long. They beat a paper champion, then get exposed by some challenger right after. Worst case scenario, these champions just straight up duck each other. These belts are like participation trophies. Now, if you wanna be the man in your division, you gotta get 4 belts. It's like the Tri-Force or something. Each belt is only a piece of what it means to be the world champion.

I had to take a break from troll threads, and get serious for once.

It means nothing....

This is a business not a sport!
Didn't you know?

[Tony Trick-Pony]

[GMAN SUPREME]

wba wbc ibf just got triggered!