By Gerardo Granados : Last week I was talking with one friend and he asked me, who is the welterweight champion? My answer was “well there are four, WBA – Vyacheslav Senchenko, WBC – Andre Berto, IBF – Jan Zaveck and WBO – Manny Pacquiao; but if you take in account the belts of the little recognized organizations there will be around eight”, * indeed there are more: IBO (International Boxing Organization) – Lovemore N´dou, The Ring – vacant, WBF (World Boxing Foundation) – vacant, WBF (World Boxing Federation) – vacant, WBU – (World Boxing Union), IBA (International Boxing Association) – vacant, IBC (International Boxing Council), IBU (International Boxing Union). He looked back at me astonished and said “how in the hell can that be!, I asked you the name of the champion, and you are saying that there is eight champions?”.

Boxing is a sport, professional boxing is a business, but this thing about having too many champions must change, its ridiculous to call eight different persons the welterweight champion; oh, and lets not forget the “interim”, “super” or “silver” champion (?). In any competition or tournament the athlete who win is called the champion, this individual prove to be the best of all; in the major sports leagues around the world there is only one team that has the privilege to be called the champion. Imagine that we could have an interim US OPEN champion or FIFA World Cup “silver champion”? That is ridiculous.

The boxing tournaments are a great idea but they last just a little too long and injuries to contenders are intangibles that can´t be controlled.

I guess is good to have different boxing organizations and “organization champions” because that way there will be more money for fighters and for the promoters; but there must be a way to find out who is the real champion of all this “organization champions”. It’s not new to pick opponents that you think you can beat, but to avoid all the fighters that you think might be a risk it’s absurd, even more if you are the defending champion. But what can be done, What about a mandatory defense against another “organization champion” that challenges for a unification bout? If the first “organization champion” refuses to fight then all fans will know he isn’t the champion, because a champion will always defend his title against all contenders; and if they do fight the winner can be considered the champion. But let’s not make this rule to be sanctioned by all principal organizations, let’s make this rule to be sanctioned by all boxing fans to recognize as the welterweight champion, the only one that deserves to be call that way.

The money must be right to sign a contract, but maybe the honor and pride to be called the champion should be also important to consider for this organization champions when they plan their next bout.