Boxing: Where Everyone Can Be a Champion

Professional boxing is the one major sport without an established league. Household acronyms need no introduction to what sports leagues they represent: NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC. There’s no confusion over who the best is in each sport because we have one champion in each. Then there’s boxing – WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, IBO. How can boxing have 5 different champions (or more if we count titles from individual countries or continents) at any weight division? It’s because there is no single recognized league for boxing fans or fighters to look to as the one true league. And with the millions of dollars at stake with licensing fees, no league is willing to amalgamate for the sake of boxing if it costs them even the tiniest cut of financial income. At this point, it’s up to Ring Magazine to be the voice of who the recognized champion should be. However, one has to take these rankings with a critical eye, as the magazine’s owner, boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, is also a major player in promoting boxers with Golden Boy Promotions. Though he has promised not to influence the editorial content, there clearly is a conflict of interest between ownership and journalistic independence.

Povetkin (left) is the WBA Heavyweight Champion, while Klistschko (right) is the WBA 'Super'-Champion

The major leagues aren’t doing themselves any favours either. It is widely recognized that Wladimir Klitschko is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He has defeated every major challenger - with relative ease. When David Haye won the WBA Heavyweight Championship over Nicolai Valuev, everyone knew he wasn’t the real top heavyweight. When Haye finally stepped up to the challenge of Klitschko, he was embarrassed and ridiculed for his scared tactics. While Klistschko added the WBA belt to his already full wardrobe less than two months ago, it wasn’t long that we found out Ruslan Chagaev (who was brutally beaten up by Klitschko not so long ago) and Alexander Povetkin (who had signed to fight Klitschko but backed out of the fight at his trainer’s discretion, fearing Povetkin was not ready to fight the champion) were fighting for the same WBA Championship belt this past weekend. How is this possible? The WBA decided to elevate Klitschko’s status to ‘Super-Champion’, while Povetkin’s victory earned him the distinction of WBA Heavyweight Champion. The reason it sounds so silly is because it is.

Boxing is quickly losing interest not only in America but around the world, and there are many reasons why. While some blame it on the lack of major American talent, it’s tough to find that true when the two biggest draws in UFC mixed martial arts are Brazilian (Anderson Silva) and Canadian (Georges St. Pierre). The rise of the UFC in popularity may also be partially to blame for the decreased interest in boxing fans for the younger generations. The real reason the sport may be falling is because there are too many interest groups fighting for an increasingly smaller amount of money invested by fans into the sport. For the sake of the future of boxing, presidents from all the boxing associations and fans alike should demand the unification of the leagues so that there is only one true champion at each weight class. The championship fights would generate a lot more interest as a result, and the fights amongst contenders would allow for what is best for the sport (instead of what is the best way to pad a certain boxer’s record to make him appear better than he really is). Fans don’t want to see unification title fights anymore; we just want one champion and a plethora of fighters looking to dethrone the man at the summit. For the sake of this dying sport, unifying the leagues needs to be done.

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