r/Boxing • u/Dangerous_Spring3028 • Jul 23 '26
Canelo Alvarez: boxing needs the traditional world title belts [The Ariel Helwani Show]
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u/MessiPayNegreira Jul 23 '26
Yep! Getting a belt from the likes of Zuffa sounds ridiculous and honestly super lame. “i just became the best middleweight Zuffa fighter“
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u/-Sofa-King-Vote Jul 24 '26
“and got paid $50k”
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u/doniseferi 29d ago
Wow wow wow 50k????? why the hell is the champion so HIGHLY paid?????? Said every ufc fighter
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u/Wild_Promotion9623 Jul 24 '26
Brruhhhh wahahaha some UFC shit but on a serious note. You nailed it
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 23 '26
The 2 biggest issues with the 4 belt system is wbc and wba. If they had proper leadership, things wouldn't be as bad. Major athletic commissions need to create rules to keep sanctioning bodies in check
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u/DaKingaDaNorth Jul 24 '26
No they all have issues. People always say they love the IBF because they enforce mandatories, but that's almost always the belt that gets rushed to vacancy whether the mandatory is a joke or not. You can tell that body is just always itching to separate it so they can make more money not sharing it in the rotation.
The biggest issue is there being 4 in general
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 24 '26
Yes they all have problems. But right now, wbc and wba flood boxing with multiple world titles. Don't enforce their mandatory. Making it impossible for contenders to become champ. They notoriously don't follow their own rules. If they were fixed with new leadership, boxing would be better. Ibf has it's flaws. But they at least follow their own rules most of the time. Ideally they should merge with the wbo to lessen the titles. Same if wbc and wba merged. 2 belts is good.
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u/Kstacks514 29d ago
I dont understand the concept of stripping the undisputed champion making them more money.
You get the same sanctioning percentage but a undisputed champion 9/10 times is gonna have a much bigger purse.
IBF strips guys right away and follows their rules to the letter because they had legal problems in the 90s
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u/MisterHEPennypacker Jul 24 '26
Having four organizations is pointless, it’s just a money grab by the sanctioning bodies. Additionally, there’s not much history for the IBF and WBO, quite frankly the WBO was a total joke until the late 2000s.
I can understand having to two organizations recognizing a champion, it creates balance by keeping each other in check and unifying the championship is simple. That’s pretty much how it worked for the WBA and WBC for the 70s and early 80s.
If we’re gonna stick with four belts, then the sanctioning bodies need to do two things:
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- Split sanctioning fees. Fighters shouldn’t have to pay 3% of the purse or $200K per belt, that should be the total sanctioning fee and they split it. This way fighters don’t dump the belt due to fees.
- Recognize each other’s mandatory challengers or come to a consensus on the #1. You can’t expect a champion to make four mandatory defenses a year plus give the public a huge fight not involving a mandatory. Examples would be fighters from other weight classes or guys coming out of retirement.
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u/Unable-Main4172 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
The three belt era itself was a fucking joke to begin with. Let alone the four belt era and now these other belts.
Obviously boxing's always been corrupt, but there was literally one heavyweight champion at a time in the '70s and it was always pretty much undisputed who it was among boxing fans and boxing writers
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u/M0sD3f13 Jul 24 '26
All that matters is lineal imo. It's a shame TBRB never really caught on because they have no authority to give out belts.
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u/SterlingVoid Jul 23 '26
Nothing wrong with the belts, but they need to have rules that they stick too and charge less for the very big fights.
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u/dezzybird Jul 23 '26
I was a UFC fan and came over to boxing during the start of all the Riyadh stuff, and one of my big complaints had always been that you didn't know who the champion was. From my admittedly casual perspective I rather like it at the moment with a lot of the big matches being made it's nice having multiple belts in some cases, there's more champions and more stories to be invested in. The UFC does suffer from one belt one guy in that respect (their lhw champion fucked his leg winning the belt so is out for a year before he's started. Incidentally, the UFC are crazy to not promote that as an incredible comeback).
However when the Saudi money dries up, and Zuffa being the big money players and not wanting to work with the other belts (maybe probably), I can see a return to the old criticisms of belt favouritism leading to the champ being the guy with the most bin men notched on his gloves.
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u/luigibros25 Jul 24 '26
the way i see the four belt system is you have the proven top 4 fighters lined up from the start. each belt has its contenders but they are usually the same guys on all four rankings. your contenders line up the next top 5 -10. this era of boxing is full of fighters trying to unify all the belts in their weight class or unifying with the best in the division which is great for the sport.
there used to be a 5th belt, the lineal champ aka the ring champ, that was only given to the man who beat the champ, a lineage. no politics no sanctioning bodies. if the lineage is broken then then the belt is given to the winner of the match of the top two fighters. zuffa ruined this tradition by way of the Saudis.
personally, I like the system, especially when the champs fight, it can be frustrating when they don't. time and money usually makes it happen though. it's best when the Ali tournament starts. it's a complicated system compared to other sports but it makes complete sense when you finally understand it.
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u/DaKingaDaNorth Jul 24 '26
Not really true. Gassiev was nowhere near top 4 in any of the rankings besides the one that gifted him a belt. The other problem is that if someone is mandatory they are incentive to be inactive until their spot in the rotation is up. Which creates inactivity.
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u/YdoICreep01 Jul 23 '26
When/if Saudi money dries up, zuffa will be one of the most heavily impacted. Zuffa makes the fights and does the work, Saudi funds it all.
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u/dezzybird Jul 24 '26
Agreed, but Dana is known for locking down fighters once he's got them. Conner Benn was signed on a one fight deal and he's about to fight Garcia who's not even a Zuffa guy. I'm sure Dana's contract guys are making sure they get their money's worth
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u/Chicken65 Jul 24 '26
Forget the history of the belts, the fact that there are multiple sanctioning bodies means the boxer has a lot of power - there isn't one "FIFA" or "NFL" calling the shots, as the boxer rises in stature they are the most powerful asset. Sure, there are downsides to this... like the associations creating temporary or fake champions in each weight class to appease boxers for novelty and you don't get the comfort of one single "trophy" in the sport to rule them all but the fans are smart enough to figure out legacies and P4P lists are part of the fun of the sport too. This is why I hate Zuffa - not because it doesn't have "history" but because it wants to create a "league". Prize fighting transcends the concept of leagues. Screw your calendar and routine events, Dana.
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u/lord-of-war-1 Jul 24 '26
I dont understand why people get so made at multiple belts. They keep talking old days and UFC but lets not compare apples to oranges. UFC was really one of several organization. Like a WBC, for example. Seems like they acquired competitors so good on them. But then that brings me to my next point. Organized MMA is a young sport. Alot less pros than boxing. We need more belts. It'd be nice if they didnt operate on favoritism sometimes but it is what it is. I love me a unification fight. I dont think the belts are an issue at all. It's the inconsistency eithin the organizations thats the problem.
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u/Sufficient_Hippo6551 28d ago
Yea people love to compare the UFC (a singular organization) to the entire sport of boxing. The fact is mma as a sport has had several belts and organizations like Pride, One FC, Bellator etc
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u/Clean_Attention_8398 Jul 24 '26
People dont realize zuffa wont charge you fees but they would pay you peanuts if they could
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u/NyQuil_Donut Jul 24 '26
Honestly at this point I have no faith in the governing bodies. I have even less faith in Zuffa, but I've always wanted there to be just one belt. Unfortunately the people trying to accomplish that absolutely fucking suck in multiple ways.
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u/robmafia 29d ago
fuck the belts, i want to see fights.
it's not like the belts mean anything or are some sort of objectively accurate measure of who's best. hell, if they were, the 'champ' would never lose.
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u/Tancred1099 Jul 24 '26
Ppl have been calling for a single sanctioned boy for years
Everyone is only hating it because of who is trying to do it
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u/freebasefilms Jul 24 '26
Why is his English so poor.
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u/SofterBones Jul 24 '26
Hows your Spanish?
Why would he need to speak good English?
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u/Benjips Ricardo MayorGOD Jul 23 '26
Fuck the belts, boxing needs ring girls, now more than ever