Which Novice titles do you respect as indicators of future greatness?

[superheavyrhun]

Last night, I was watching some boxing on Eurosport from the Ukraine, which saw three Ukrainians fighting for what were pretty much small fry in terms of titles, but that set me wondering as to which fighters of true quality came through these small organisational titles to become true greats in their times. After a swift look at the p4p table put forward by Ring Magazine, and their records, the results showed that:

WBC International title: 4
NABF: 3
USBA: 3
NABO: 3
British title: 2
OPBF title: 1
WBA International: 1
WBO Inter-continental title: 1

Out of the current p4p suggested by the Ring ratings, only one of those fighters ignored all the smaller titles and went straight on to World titles, and that was, unsurprisingly, Floyd Mayweather. On that p4p list, Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton were the ones who had worked their way through most regional and international titles.

My question to you would be which of the regional/novice titles do you respect te most, and is there any of those which tend to lend themselves to the real potential in their respective divisions?

[Violent Demise]

None. The Mayweather route is the way to go. Shane Mosley also followed the same route. And I think De La Hoya did as well. There's no need for bullshit titles if your truly destined for greatness. Just go right to it.

[p4pking]

Id say none as well... If some current p4p fighters happened to hold minor belts early in their career, it isn't signifigant as to why they are where they stand now... The only things I respect as an indicator of future greatness are what can I see in the ring, and I suspect this is true with most anyone..

[ElTerribleMorales]

None. The Mayweather route is the way to go. Shane Mosley also followed the same route. And I think De La Hoya did as well. There's no need for bullshit titles if your truly destined for greatness. Just go right to it.

i think Oscar's first title was the WBO 130 lb title wasn't it? and that's not a minor title

[frozensolid_702]

None. The Mayweather route is the way to go. Shane Mosley also followed the same route. And I think De La Hoya did as well. There's no need for bullshit titles if your truly destined for greatness. Just go right to it.

i think Oscar's first title was the WBO 130 lb title wasn't it? and that's not a minor title

It was back then. The WBO belt used to hardly be recognized by anybody.


It was like a small step up from the NABF title.

[ElTerribleMorales]

none the less it was the WBO title, not the WBO interim title, so it was directly to a world title, the fact that if it was regarded as highly as it is now, well that's irrelevant

[DaxxKahn]

Last night, I was watching some boxing on Eurosport from the Ukraine, which saw three Ukrainians fighting for what were pretty much small fry in terms of titles, but that set me wondering as to which fighters of true quality came through these small organisational titles to become true greats in their times. After a swift look at the p4p table put forward by Ring Magazine, and their records, the results showed that:

WBC International title: 4
NABF: 3
USBA: 3
NABO: 3
British title: 2
OPBF title: 1
WBA International: 1
WBO Inter-continental title: 1

Out of the current p4p suggested by the Ring ratings, only one of those fighters ignored all the smaller titles and went straight on to World titles, and that was, unsurprisingly, Floyd Mayweather. On that p4p list, Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton were the ones who had worked their way through most regional and international titles.

My question to you would be which of the regional/novice titles do you respect te most, and is there any of those which tend to lend themselves to the real potential in their respective divisions?

I go with Violent Demise NONE......Avoid the BS titles if you can....But in all fairness Mosley and DLH had advantages where they did not havce to go through a lot of the scrub ranks like most to....So you have to start somewhere I suppose....

NABO and NABF are always a jumping off point so is the USBA,,,,,All British titles are only important in Great Britian and half the rest of the world has no idea who claims them so you can't go by any of those...

WBC continental title holders have a high future world champion rate

[brucelee]

WBC International. I consider it as an indicator to greatness in the future. Take a look at PAcquaio.

[frozensolid_702]

WBC International. I consider it as an indicator to greatness in the future. Take a look at PAcquaio.

Can you name me 5 others that were "great," that held that belt?

I'm not doubting it, I'm just curious.

[boozeboxer]

I don't think that there is a certain set way a fighter should come up. I mean fighters progress at many different speeds and it is hard for many fighters to get fights so if the oppurtunity to capture a regional belt comes up all depends on situation.

For example, some fighters like Hasim rachman did not even have any amatuer background work so I find one certain path for all fighters to be quite silly.

[brucelee]

PAcquaio, Manny, PAcman, the Destroyer, and Emmanuel PAcquaio.

[CutMeMick]

None. The Mayweather route is the way to go. Shane Mosley also followed the same route. And I think De La Hoya did as well. There's no need for bullshit titles if your truly destined for greatness. Just go right to it.

Couldn't have said it better myself, theres no need for MORE confussion of titles and rankings.
Just jump right in and go for it, if it's to be it will be.

[bzkfn]

WBC International. I consider it as an indicator to greatness in the future. Take a look at PAcquaio.

Can you name me 5 others that were "great," that held that belt?

I'm not doubting it, I'm just curious.

Well Hatton holds the 140lb version of that now. He won it off Castillo, so there's two...although they both won 'world' titles before this belt.

The British & Commonwealth titles are a great route to go down as they're respected and is something to fall back on if it all goes down the shitter.

I see it like most sports. Become the best in the country, then continent, then the world. It's a natural step.

[superheavyrhun]

WBC International. I consider it as an indicator to greatness in the future. Take a look at PAcquaio.

Can you name me 5 others that were "great," that held that belt?

I'm not doubting it, I'm just curious.

I think Pacquiao is the joker in the pack (pun most certainly intended) here, because he was at the top of his game well before he claimed the WBC International title at Super Featherweight, which he has held for a while, but he also held the same title at Super Bantamweight earlier in his career.

Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto have also held the title in their respective divisions, and just a cursory glance on boxrec shows such names as Wlad Klitschko, Mikkel Kessler, Herol Graham, Chris Eubank, and Naseem Hamed have also held versions of the title, along with numerous names that never made it on to the world stage.

I was interested to see a lot of people back Mayweather's route to world title greatness, but I think that these regional titles play an important part in helping fighters develop, and gradually move up through different levels of opponents before going in with a world titlist.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

None. The Mayweather route is the way to go. Shane Mosley also followed the same route. And I think De La Hoya did as well. There's no need for bullshit titles if your truly destined for greatness. Just go right to it.

Baring in mind the current state of boxing, i have to agree.

Althogh i think regional/ national & continental titles should be an integral part of boxings infrastructure.