By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t like the way that the 4 sanctioning bodies have created world titles like the ‘interim’ and Super champion,’ and he thinks there should just be 4 champions. In recent years, there’s been an explosion of titles created, and it’s done a good job of confusing the boxing public.
It’s not just the sanctioning bodies that lessened the prestige of being a world champion. You’ve got the ‘Lineal champion’ and ‘Ring Magazine’ champion. It’s too much for the average fan to keep up with. The WBA has the ‘regular’ and ‘Super’ champion, as well as interim champion.
Recently, the World Boxing Council created the ‘Franchise’ championship status, which is the equivalent of being a King in chess. The WBC Franchise champion isn’t required to defend against mandatory challengers, and the can’t lose the title even if beaten.
It’s easy to see why the sanctioning bodies feel the need to create so many titles. With the sanctioning fees, it’s a good deal to have as many titles in circulation as possible.
Mayweather: There should only be 4 champions
“What I don’t like about the sport of boxing right now. There’s a lot of things I don’t like about boxing,” said Mayweather during his UK tour this week. “In the beginning, what is interim champ? They got interim champs now. You got guys where they’re awarding guys vacant belts. I don’t like that, and they got ‘Super champions.’
“I do believe that if you’ve got four boxing organizations in the sport, you should only have four champions,” said Mayweather. “A lot of times you guys want to see certain fighters fight other fighters, but there are so many different promoters that are in boxing now that are stopping certain fighters from fighting certain fighters.
“With me myself, I was happy that I was able to buy myself out of my contract for $750,000. In three fights after I bought myself out of my contract, I was able to make $750 million in just three fights,” said Mayweather.
It’s likely that the different titles the 4 sanctioning bodies have created WON’T go away. If anything, it’s predictable that more world titles will be created, which will make a mess of the sport of boxing.
At this point, the titles are becoming increasingly less important to the average boxing fan. Instead, fans are more interested in popular fighters, who put on great shows. In the future, it’s quite possible that the world titles will be phased out and replaced by something else.
Floyd discusses how sanctioning bodies mail titles
“People don’t know this but when you win a world title and first get the belt, and anytime you win a world title, when you get back to the dressing room, you have to give that belt back,” said Mayweather during his UK tour this week. “Then what they [the sanctioning body] does is they mail you your own belt in the mail.
“So what a lot of people think is when you win a title, you get the belt and keep the belt. No. But once I got to the top of the sport, whereas when I was fighting guys like Canelo and fighting guys like De La Hoya and Pacquiao, those fights are events. So when I fight, they make special belts for those fights. So actually later on in my career when I win fights, they just give me the belt.
“I guess they already knew. But in the beginning, when you win world titles, they mail you the belt. It takes like 4 to 6 weeks, they mail you the belt in the mail,” said Mayweather.
As you can see, the popular fighters like Mayweather have a better set up when it comes to the world titles. It really doesn’t matter though whether the titles or given immediately or sent through the mail. If the fans are already viewing the belts as trinket decorations, it’s pointless to have them in the first place.
