Boxing leagues

[OregonDucks]

One reason it is fairly difficult to follow boxing is there are like 4 different leagues and champions. Is there one league that is more prestige or more "Pro" Then the others?

You got the WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, any of these considered better then the others? Are they all the same? What is the point of having so many different leagues?

 

[Edonidd]

No, all 4 of those organizations are considered equal. There are other minor titles that don't quite stack up to those 4, but those are all on the same level.

Butt they all also pull some bullshit sometimes. The WBA sometimes (not always, and I don't know the his or why's of it) will name a guy a Super champion and then name a second guy at the same weight the regular champion. I think redently they did that to GGG named him the super champion, but then gave his #1 contender Danny Jacobs a "regular" championship belt. Sometimes things like that can be ok. It lets them make more 12 round fights, because of the stupid rule that only championship bouts can be 12 rounds. I kind of expected them to give Mayweather a belt for that upcoming fight so it can be 12 rounds, but I honestly haven't paid attention to see if they did.

The WBC is seen by a lot of people as being crooked, it's a supposed world championship, but based in Mexico. Their rankings, their mandatory challengers, their whole politics heavily leans Mexican.

IBF is also known for being political. Their rankings usually match up the worst with Ring magazine. It's niit country of origin based, but more on your promoter and politics and money. They've been known to strip their belt from champions who were actively fighting unanimous top tier opponents, simply because those guys werent on their ratings.

Luckily Ring magazine keeps track of everything too. Those other organizations are actually called sanctioning bodies. They have a set of rules for IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO and as long as you pay a fee to that organization and follow their rules they officially sanction the fight. Some rank fighters different based on if they have been paying them or not. Ring magazine is like an AP top 25 in college football. They'll rank all of the fighters in the order they see them. Except as Champion, they don't pick the best fighter as Champion instead they kind of keep track of what they call the lineal champion. Which may or may jjot always be the same thing.

Ratings - The Ring

 

[Edonidd]

Here's a good example of some of the BS that goes on.

Gennady Golovkin is pretty much the king of the middleweight division, and has been for awhile. The former king (Sergio Martinez) was at the end of his career and fighting the biggest names for the most money, not unlike Mayweather now. Nothing wrong with that. He lost to Miguel Cotto, who was pretty much at the same point in his career. Cotto then lost to Canelo Alvarez at a catch weight. He has never fought at the 160 lb limit. The belt he won WBC I think ordered him to fight GGG, he declined that fight and abandoned the belt. In GGG's next fight, he fought to win that WBC belt, despite the guy he was fighting not being champion (you can't award a belt, a fighter has to win a belt usually). So that's where we are currently.

GGG has 3 of the 4 major belts. WBC, WBA, and IBF.
Canelo has no belts, kind of, but since he is "the guy who beat the guy" he is recognized as the "Lineal" champion. Which also makes him The Ring magazine champion. So he has that belt, although it's not a sanctioning body.

The WBC organization though has a rule that you have to weigh in 30 days pre-fight, and then 7 days pre-fight. There are weight limits on this, I believe it's 10% over the weight limit at 30 days (so 176 in this case) and 5% over (168) 7 days out. This is supposedly to help get rid of some of the weight cutting from the sport.

GGG has a walking around (out of shape) weight around 175. Canelo is more like 190. GGG the night of the fight will probably be around 165. Canelo will be more like 185.

So Canelo just isn't fighting for the WBC belt. No matter what happens, win or lose GGG will still be champion. Unless they strip him iif it and let somebody else fight it, which is how we come up with non lineal champions.

The IBF has a rule where you have to weigh in the morning of the night of the fight. That weigh in can't be more than 10 pounds over the weight limit. Canelo hasn't said anything yet, but most expect he won't participate in that weigh in.

So win or lose, Canelo can only take 1 of GGG's 3 belts. Meanwhile since GGG wants to keep his belts (and even unify them like Crawford just did) he will actually be fighting at a distinct disadvantage due to him being required to follow rules that his opponent doesn't. Not really that big of a deal, but it just shows some of the silliness of the different organizations.