The LINEAL welterweight championship

[Galaxy]

If Cotto beats Margarito I must in following my theory recognize Cotto as the man at 147 why? Because look who he has beat from that list.

2) Shane Mosley
3) Carlos Quintana
5) Antonio Margarito (with the assumption that he wins in this scenario)
6) Zab Judah

As opposed to Floyd

6) Zab Judah

I definately see where you are coming from, and I would rather not strip away a title from someone, but if there are no credible defenses made, I have a hard time recognizing someone as the champ.

Out of Cotto's opponents none of them were champion. I'm sure a proud warrior such as Cotto would rather win his championship in the ring than have it handed to him.

Benny Leonard made just 6 defenses in 8 years, stripping is not the answer it just adds to the problem!

I don't think punishing people for not defending against the top 10 adds to the problem, it would make fighters have to fight more often, the lack of activity is the problem to me. I hate the fact that it is standard for title holders to fight once or twice a year and that is the norm now.

Having more than one champion in each division is the biggest problem there is for our sport. No other sport has this ridiculousness!

I too get frustrated by inactivity but fighters make loads more these days so they don't need to fight as often... I don't see this changing.

But recognizing one champion in each division is something simple we can do to better our sport & Ring magazine has given us the opportunity to do this.

As I remember Hatton was ranked about #4 at 147 until he informed the Ring that he was returning to 140. So in essence by defeating Hatton Floyd defeated not only another champion but also potentially a top 10 welter.