More bulls**t!! Andre Berto has a title shot vs Jan Zaveck on September 24th

[marbleheadmaui]

Good for Berto and his team for getting this fight. But IMO, if a fighter lose in a championship fight, if there's no rematch, he should have to work his way back up to a title shot. Maybe automatically dropping their ranking to 3. In which if the champion fight his mandatory #1, the he should or have to fight the #2 guy for a possible title shot.
Saying that, if Berto win, his next fight will be high profile.
1. A rematch with Ortiz whether he lose to Mayweather or pull off the upset. FOY2
2. Mayweather whether he win or lose. MONEY!!!
3. Bradley?
4. Khan?

I agree with this. If a fighter is not getting a rematch, #3 or lower sounds good. I don't understand the reasoning of getting a immediate title shot. We might as well give Pascal and David Haye a title shot again as well in their next fight back. The root of this problem is all the damn belts in the first place, if there wasn't so mant belts these guys wouldn't be getting a immediate "title" shot again. Get rid of most of the belts and we get rid of the problem.

Actually the problem is your misunderstanding of what the belts are. There are 4 major belts in each weightclass. Therefore by fighting for one, in an ideal world the winner will be one of the 4 best fighters at that weight class.

The Ring rankings meanwhile have more real significance, with the Ring champion of each division being recognised as number in that division, most often there is no Ring champion at a weight class, as it requires unifying the belts.

So at welter, both Manny and Ortiz, the top two welters hold belts. Berto is rated number 3. Therefore he SHOULD be fighting for a belt for boxing to be fair and consistent. Surely the best and highest rated fighters should be getting the title shots.

He's fighting for Zaveck's strap, not for the Ring championship. If the winner of Berto Zaveck was to become the Ring champion then it would be a farce. But they will not. They will become a belt holder, a titlist, holding one of the 4 recognised belts.

This is entirely correct.

The problem is as I have stated before, some fans have an impossibly archaic view of what each belt represents. Winning a belt doesn't mean you are the best in the division, how can it, when there are three other belts. It just means you are one of the top 4 (ideal world). To know a fighters real ranking you turn to Ring magazine's rankings, and eventually if a fighter unifies they may end up as the Ring champion, and get a Ring belt presented to them. This is an honour that doesn't often happen as it's not easy to become a Ring champ.

There really isn't a whole lot wrong with the system, just many fans seem incapable of understanding it.

There is a TON wrong with this sytem.

1. Calling beltholders "champions" devalues the meaning of the word champion. What Sergio Martinez is and what Saul Alvarez is are not remotely comparable;
2. Having multiple beltholders in each division prevents the casual fan from quickly identifying the top fighter
3. Casual fans being unable to quickly identify top fighters prevents fighters from becoming household names.
4. Having only 1-2 household names at a time in the sport damages it. There needs to be 8-10 household names. How does on create that? Well a major step would be to simplify the "championship" identification
5. Belts PREVENT big fights from being made.
6. Beltholders are routinely recategorized to create yet more beltholders. Now Bradley's belt is being taken so Erik Morales has a chance to win a strap. While I have great respect for Terrible? This is a sham, one of just many examples.

[Master]

Do not see these titles as world champions, more just getting in line to be the number 1 or to fight the number 1 in the division. Eric Morales may fight for a strap but no one will consider him the best at the weight unless you are Sulliman.

[marbleheadmaui]

Do not see these titles as world champions, more just getting in line to be the number 1 or to fight the number 1 in the division. Eric Morales may fight for a strap but no one will consider him the best at the weight unless you are Sulliman.

But if the bold is the point then the bels just confuse the matter. Use Ring rankings instead. Plus the belts today are an impediment to getting a division's pecking order cleaned up. These organizations prevent good fights from being made by threatening to strip fighters.