Please stop listing IBO as a "World Title"!

[Pigeons]

Think it's too late bro. I'm with you but I think it's all but officially a 5th belt now. And it'll be officially sooner or later.

I disagree. The IBO was founded in 1988, the same year as the WBO, but has yet to be recognized by any of the other major sanctioning orgs. They also only list a champion in 8 of 17 weight classes, which is something that minor sanctioning orgs struggle with.

I also think that title gets vacated far too often before unifications for it to be meaningful. Recent examples:

• Breidis was the WBC and IBO cruiserweight champion going into the WBSS, but vacated the IBO before the first round.
• Eubank Jr. brought the IBO super middleweight title into the WBSS, but it wasn't on the line vs. Groves.
• Indongo was the IBO champion going into the Crawford unification, but it was vacated before the fight.

Historically, it's been a belt held by a lot of Australian and South African fighters.

[IMDAZED]

not looking forward to arguing with post millenials of the 2020s that IBO was a fake title in the 00s and 10s, like arguing with millenials that the wbo was fake in the 90s.

That’s exactly what’s gonna happen. I’ll never consider those two belts on par with the other three.

[juggernaut666]

Dont hate the player ,hate the game.

The belt has been around longer than anyone on this thread probably been watching boxing . lol


The reality is if its put in play then its no less irrelevant to other belts like WBO . Whoever is wearing ANY belt makes the belt . You newbs seem to think the belt makes the fighter and thats bc you just started watching boxing probably AFTER the Lewis era .


LOL at posters bickering over history of belts .

Joshua has FOUR belts and he SHOULD have 5 belts bc of the ring title .



Wilder has ONE belt defeating STIVERNE . Yea hes the man to beat ..WBC ...YEA BRAAAAA ????? LMAO


Im pretty sure that fight wasnt as important bc of A belt right compared to Joshua defeating Klitchko and Parker both UNIFICATION fights right ? lol


Again Joshua FOUR belts

Wilder ONE belt .


We know its just another Joshua thread ,but guess what ? When he walks into the negotiating terms he will be carrying FOUR belts , he will do so bc in REAL life he won them .

[Eff Pandas]

I disagree. The IBO was founded in 1988, the same year as the WBO, but has yet to be recognized by any of the other major sanctioning orgs. They also only list a champion in 8 of 17 weight classes, which is something that minor sanctioning orgs struggle with.

I also think that title gets vacated far too often before unifications for it to be meaningful. Recent examples:

• Breidis was the WBC and IBO cruiserweight champion going into the WBSS, but vacated the IBO before the first round.
• Eubank Jr. brought the IBO super middleweight title into the WBSS, but it wasn't on the line vs. Groves.
• Indongo was the IBO champion going into the Crawford unification, but it was vacated before the fight.

Historically, it's been a belt held by a lot of Australian and South African fighters.

There's a lot of examples one could give that suggest a belt is gaining or losing ground in theory. I'm not saying the IBO is the perfect 5th belt or one without issues.

I just think its virtually a forgone conclusion it'll be a 5th title belt cuz enough promoters want MORE belts & fighters wanna be fighting for A belt at all. Thus more belts will be the trend & has been for thirty years. Maybe some other 5th belt will pop up & push the IBO out of the way perhaps. But a 5th belt will happen cuz money.

[PsychoPat]

Too true. I hate how IBO slips into the list.

For me the ‘main’ belts are the WBC WBA and IBF. WBO just behind them. The IBO is really not in as high a regard and literally only gets seen as one whenever a promoter/fighter tries shoving it in to the situation as though it is one; for recent example, see Hearn-Joshua

The only reason it gets flaunted like this is because of when you get those shots of unified guys with all the belts hanging off them, it adds to the image.

No one gives a shít about the IBO, hate reading articles that state Joshua as having four titles. There are four main titles. He has four belts, not four titles. We all know where the fourth is. Joshua could have had the WBU and it would get used as a prop as a major belt.

Is this the same ibo belt that eubank Jr was swanning about with after beating that Australian fringe contender?

[DreamFighter]

IBO is just like the "most improved student" award at school. Everyone knows the "award for best" is what counts.

[N/A]

Ugh no wonder I’m hearing more and more about this trinket. IBO and WBO sicken me.

That's part of it, but you're mainly hearing more about it because Anthony Joshua is the IBO heavyweight champion and Anthony Joshua is the most popular boxer in the world. So if the most popular boxer in the world is pretending that your belt is legit, a lot of people are going to be fooled.

What fans don't realize is that for the last two decades, the IBO hasn't charged a sanctioning fee for their heavyweight title. They give it away for free to whoever is considered the real heavyweight champion. They do this because it gives them some credibility to have a notable heavyweight champion and then they can try to make some money sanctioning their super flyweight title to a South African nobody has ever heard of.

It's a smart move and I actually have nothing against the IBO personally. Ed Levine is a great guy and I like him a lot. The IBO gaining recognition would be terrible for the sport of boxing, but that doesn't change the fact that Ed is a cool cat.

Getting Holyfield and Lewis to agree to allow the IBO title to be at stake in their undisputed championship fight was one of the biggest moves Ed has ever pulled off. Kudos to him that ever since then, he's been able to convince the top heavyweight to agree to carry his title. It's truly brilliant and he deserves kudos for managing to make it happen.

But it's not a recognized world title and hopefully it never will be.

[Ben Bolt]

The most fascinating thing in this thread is how people can take any of the boxing orgs seriously.
To them, it doesn’t matter if you are the best fighter in the world. If you don’t pay ‘em their demanded sanction fee, you don’t exist.

For ex., the “most credible organization” WBC never, ever recognized Wlad Klitschko as a world champion. IBO is as much “credible” as the WBCheats.

[_Rexy_]

The most fascinating thing in this thread is how people can take any of the boxing orgs seriously.
To them, it doesn’t matter if you are the best fighter in the world. If you don’t pay ‘em their demanded sanction fee, you don’t exist.

For ex., the “most credible organization” WBC never, ever recognized Wlad Klitschko as a world champion. IBO is as much “credible” as the WBCheats.

When did Wlad win the WBC championship?

[Boksfan]

IBO is not a major belt but out of the major ones WBA is definitely the shyttiest one.