Back in the black and white era boxing was as big a sport as any in America and there were a lot more fighters and there was only one champion. Promoters could throw any prospect in with anybody they wanted because there were a lot more fighters coming along so if a prospect turned out to be not as good as advertised it didn't matter so much. There was such a queue of guys waiting for a shot at any one of the belts that they were going to be tested against the best many times before they got near a title fight.

Nowadays the whole promotional model is different. A promoter signs a prospect with potential and nurses him along carefully. They basically partner up with a sanctioning body to ease a careful path to a title to keep everybody making money.

Back in the day it was all gate money and no TV. Fights had to be good, who was in them was kinda secondary. The profusion of fights, fighters and cards meant a big pool of talent available and a queue of top guys with name recognition and followings waiting for a title fight. Now with so few fighters and fights by comparison and so many belts and everything meaningful on TV it's a different ball game.