Bilbo you are all over the place. At first the alphabets are what makes the sport great and are single handily keeping boxers from trading sexual favors in order to stay out of the poor house now the argument is that the straps are largely irrelevant. I'm going to agree with you that to serious fans they are irrelevant but its b/c we recognize how they impede the sport, lack credibility and are corrupt. To the casual fan, which is who the sport is losing in a landslide, they make following the sport convoluted. Even with great champions its not hard to find instances where they protected their belts by choosing to not fight another title holder or waiting until a great fighter got older. The alphabets perpetuate this practice. If you don't like the Ring fine, if you think the sport needs more tiered belts great, but I just can't fathom that having a watered down, corrupt alphabet system that hurts the sports credibility is preferential to singular belt and objective ranking system for each division.