Divisions need to be more effectively unified

[chrisbird13]

Apart from Bell at Cruiser no division is unified at the moment. Why is that? Its because money speaks louder than competition nowadays and because of the diversity in the ratings system. How come a fighter can hold one belt but not be top three challenger for another belt. The ratings systems stink.

To take the HW division, IMO Klitschko is No1 fighter out there and Rahman is also a top cotender. How come they are not forced to fight each other by the organisations whose belts they hold.

Boxing is essentially and understandably due to its nature a mercenary sport where mosts fighters will fight for the biggest payday on offer, and want to keep their ability to achieve big pay days. To do this a boxer must hold as many belts as possible and/or retain their 0. Without one of these it is very difficult to achieve the big paydays as they will be dumped by a fickle public as overhyped or past their prime (not always).

PBF Hatton will not happen IMO as PBF is keen to keep his 0 as is Hatton, unless it is a final fight for either man (hence why Hatton is more keen, as PBF probably feels he has a lot more miles in the tank). If the IBF made Hatton No 1 Challenger I think the fight would come off as PBF would not want to lose his belt and/or be seen to obviously duck a challenge.

The reason divisions aren't unified is because fighters defend their 0 too much and the organisations rating systems do not encourage these superfights.

Any Thoughts?

[chrisbird13]

Ok just been looking at IBF rating criteria and they say that WBC and WBA champions don't get on the list of challengers, but are considered as No 1 challenger for purpose of unification.

If so why doesn't unification happen more often,

I don't think this is right. By leaving them on the list it would force mandatory unification which would be a good thing

[superheavyrhun]

Yeah, I'd have to agree that more unified champs would be a good thing for the sport, raising the profile of each boxer, and bringing more top fights, as each guy in the division fought the other champs to bring the belts together.

I know that the money will never allow it, as every champ would want more than 50% of anything for any fight, as they think that they're the big shot.

Also, as we can see with the heavyweight division, I don't see any one fighter there that is head and shoulders above the rest as a champ, though Klitschko could be the one.

The main motivation for everyone who has a belt is to keep hold of it, and do nothing more than that, and no-one wants a big fight cause they could lose the belt and the higher rates of pay that come with them.