By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: There have been many who have spoken out against the many belts that are floating around in boxing. Many have called for the elimination of the “super” champions in order to determine one champ per division. Many fans don’t know who is the “true” champion is within the division.
The Ring Magazine has issued their belt to let the fans know who is “the guy to beat” per division. For example, in the eyes of the public WBA/IBF/interim WBC champ Gennady Golovkin is the guy to beat in the middleweight division. What can happen in calling for one champ per division is that people will start to complain about the guy who is holding all the belts.
It’s human nature. Some grow tired of watching the same guy winning. At that point, the public will start demanding him to either move up to another division or build up another fighter to beat the champ. Take the heavyweight division. The longest reign after Mike Tyson lost the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles to James Buster Douglas and before the Klitschko brothers (Wladimir and Vitali) got their hands on the title was Evander Holyfield. His reign lasted two and half years. But people cried for a unified champ and got one in the K Bros yet people still complained.
What fans/experts and those alike want is for a “certain fighter whose fighting style is appealing” to be on top. Technical fighters aren’t allowed to be on top. They have to take boxing by force to make their presence known. Now let’s say that GGG gets his hands on all the titles. I think the opinions will split. More than half of the fans already call his competition bums and tomato cans. Having all the belts will instantly set up a series of title defenses causing him to fight the “whos who” to casual fans, but legitimate contenders to the hardcore fans. Bottom line, multiple belts; complain. One champ; complain.
Title Defenses/Fights need time to build.
Some fans seem to be upset at wanting to let a fight build. They seem to be against the idea of letting one fighter, who, probably just came into the belt, of getting a few reps under his belt before engaging in another big fight. Title defenses builds adds on to the already fan base and gives the new champ more exposure. It also helps when it comes to trying to put together a huge fight.
The idea is to maximize the boxing match(fan bases, money, ticket sales etc). But all throughout boxing history, fights have taken time to build unless there was a tournament that took place. Mike Tyson benefited from the heavyweight tournament in the 80’s Bernard Hopkins benefited from the 2001 middleweight tournament, and Andre Ward benefited from the Super Six tournament. When Thomas Hearns defeated Pipino Cuevas for his WBA belt in 1980, he did not immediately jump into a bout with Ray Leonard. He defended his belt three times winning all by knockout. That gave the public the perception that Hearns (the slugger) would do the same to Leonard (the boxer). According the late Angelo Dundee, as he stated on Legendary Nights, the tale of Leonard Hearns, that he could see the event was going to be big so didn’t let the fight happen right away. But when it did happen, it became the richest fight in boxing at that time.
There is a lot going in the middleweight division right now that is causing some “coward” confetti to be thrown at newly crowned WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders for not wanting to fight Trip right away. I give him credit with being honestly with the public is saying, he wasn’t ready to fight (since that time a contract was sent to Saunders from Tom Loeffler director of K2 Promotions). I don’t believe Saunders is scared at all and I can see why is reluctant to jump in the ring right away with Trip. One, Frank Warren, Saunders promoter probably wants to get his fighter few defenses under his belt and sharpen some skills before getting into the ring with a very dangerous fighter in Trip. Two, Warren probably wants to see if the fans still want the fight after some time. If they do, then the potential to maximize their earnings is great. Three, if they jump into that bout right away, they want to be compensated (4 million they asked for) because they are giving up their opportunity to expand the Saunders brand. They want to get something out the deal.
Look what happened to David Lemieux. He won the vacant IBF title and jumped right into the ring with Trip. First, I give credit to Lemiuex for fighting Trip, but he lost out on the opportunity to build his name. Two, Trip/Lemmy could have done more than 150,000 buys had the fight had time to build. If somewhere down the line Andre Ward and Trip end up fighting, the fight will be huge because the public wants to see no matter how many months away the fight takes place. In fact, it’s hot enough now to do big numbers. The idea is not to top a fighter too soon because his opposition will probably seen as tomato cans (if not already). Take some time to research the super fights of your favorite fighters and see when their big fights took place. You’ll be glad you did.
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