Last week the Miss America Pageant was held in Las Vegas after 86 years in Atlantic City. Once the standard of female pulchritude, the contest has fallen on hard times in recent years and relocated in an effort to revive interest in the contest. No longer able to land a major network willing to risk ratings that, based on recent performance, make “Joey” look like “American Idol,” the show was televised on a cable country music channel.
I saw some clips on TV, and I think I have some insight on the Miss America problem. Not to be unkind, but the least attractive cocktail waitress at ringside for the Pacquiao-Morales fight would make a better Miss America than any of the finalists , if physical appearance is the criteria for crowning the national symbol of beauty. To me, the Miss America winner is a “champion” only within the environs of the pageant, which seems stuck in the year 1955.
Similarly, the line has been blurred in boxing as to what constitutes a champion. The alphabet sanctioning bodies – WBA, WBC, IBF, IBA, and IBO, as well as Ring Magazine, Boxing Digest, ESPN, and several websites have their own champions and their own rankings. The disparity between some rankings can be mind boggling at times. For example, most sanctioning bodies won’t even rank the champion of a rival organization.
Writers refer to the multitude of “champions” as title holders, belt holder, titlists, strap owner – just about anything except “champion,” except for the minute percentage that achieve “undisputed” status – reflecting their disdain for the sanctioning bodies. We are reluctant to give validity to often paper champions fighting dubious manufactured mandatory fights dictated by the alphabet groups.
Norm Longtin, the ratings guru for the IBA, whose ratings are arguably the best of the bunch, thinks he knows the reason.
“We don’t have forced mandatory fights,” Longtin said. “So I rate them the way they are using my best judgment. Everyone thinks that their ratings are the best, but try to keep it up for 10 years, every month, and put your name on it.”
Even Ring Magazine and Boxing Digest couldn’t be more dissimilar in their approach to rankings.
The Ring is fanatically devoted to the authenticity of its belt, in existence since 1922, and maintaining the sanctity of it. They sincerely care about the integrity of the sport, and their championship policy is seemingly without agenda.
Ring explains how their ratings are compiled by their editors on its ratings page:
Fighters recognized as champions by The Ring are rated at the top of their division, with the top 10 contenders listed below.
Championship vacancies can be filled by winning a box off between The Ring’s number one and number two contenders, or in certain instances, a box off between our number one and number three contenders.
The only three occasions when a fighter will lose his championship status are when he retires, moves to another weight division, or is defeated in a championship bout.
Boxing Digest has a ratings system now, also. While Ring ranks all 17 of the modern day divisions, however, Boxing Digest rate but nine divisions, the eight historical divisions plus cruiserweight, with no junior or super divisions. In the most recent issue of Boxing Digest, there was an insert to tout their relatively new ratings system.
Boxing Digest’s rankings have morphed since its inception a few issues ago. The first published ratings listed a champion in nine divisions, who was #1, then listed four others for a top five. In the latest issue, each division had a top 10, the #1 printed in boldface with their picture, I assume to designate them as champions.
Boxing Digest’s insert cover read:
17 Weight Classes to 9 Saving the Sport of Boxing
Confusion, Contradictions, Conspiracy are the products of Multiple Champions.
Boxing fans have hailed Boxing Digest’s move to force a change which can stop the confusion as to who are the champions.
This plan can return championship titles to reality.
The inside pages of the insert contained testimonials from reader’s letters and emails praising their ratings. The back page of the insert appears to take a couple of shots at Ring, including:
BOXING DIGEST does not exact charges or sanctioning fees from boxers or promoters for BOXING DIGEST’S ratings.
That shot might be considered as below the belt, but the facts are that in 1977 Ring was involved in a televised boxing tournament on ABC, and allegations of favoritism, kickbacks, falsified records, extortion and rigged ratings compromised the integrity of the tournament, which was quickly cancelled. The scandal disgraced Ring as, according to historian Herb Goldman, “at the very least, a very faulty record keeper, and, at the worst was a rather corrupt organization.”
That is the problem with the Ring formula. Nigel Collins’ integrity is beyond reproach and any thought in his involvement in a scandal such as the one in prehistoric 1977 is ludicrous. However, Nigel’s successor may or may not be as scrupulously honest.
The Ring is on the right track, but if they included an independent boxing poll with international boxing writers, broadcasters, and editors as dedicated to the game as Nigel Collins is to contribute, while keeping the same criteria, they might be in a better position to pressure the various sanctioning bodies to conform to more objective rankings.
As for the Boxing Digest ratings, it appears to be a work in progress. I’m a traditionalist at heart, and I would personally prefer nine divisions. But, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Boxing’s power elite is unable to agree on almost everything; they certainly won’t look twice at something that would decrease revenue.
Somehow, when Carlo Baldomir failed to pony up the sanctioning fees to the IBA and WBA before his victory over Zab Judah, Judah lost the fight, yet retained the IBF welterweight title. It is my understanding that Judah achieved this feat because, 1] Baldomir did not pay the sanctioning fees according to the IBF bylaws, 2] Baldomir did not participate in the second day weigh in mandated by the IBF that requires the participants not to exceed 10 pounds over the weight limit, and 3] Baldomir refused to join the IBF Retirement and Trust Plan, a condition for sanction.
Even more confusing to me is the WBA title situation. The WBA recognizes a fighter as a “Super Champion” when he holds the WBA title with at least one other title sanctioned by the WBC or IBF. The Super Champion is stripped of the “regular” championship and two contenders are chosen by the WBA then fight for the vacated, or non- super title.
Luis Collazo is the WBA “regular” welterweight champion. I couldn’t understand why the WBA title is considered vacant if they already had a “regular” champion. So I called a member of the WBA’s Championship Committee to ask. I was told that he didn’t know why Luis Collazo was not recognized as the WBA champion. A few hours later, he called to tell me that the topic was going to be put before the Championship Committee when it meets in April.
I still don’t understand. But logic tells me that since Floyd Mayweather and Judah are back on for April 8th for the IBF title the winner could fight Collazo for the “Super Championship,” then two other guys could fork up sanctioning fees to be the “regular” champ, and the WBA could continue to collect double income from sanctioning fees, just like before.
Another possibility: Bob Arum told reporters that the vacant WBA title “may be” on the line for Mayweather-Judah, so stay tuned as the boxing power brokers scour the WBA bylaws for a loophole to keep Judah as “Super Champion.”
As regards the on again fight between Mayweather and Judah, Arum agreed that it was not as big as it was before Judah’s loss, but would still be a PPV attraction.
“This was a hot fight before the debacle in New York,” Arum said. “Obviously he [Judah] was just not prepared.”
If anyone can sell this fight, it would be the canny Arum. Though the Manny Pacquiao fight was officially a title eliminator for Marco Antonio Barrera’s super featherweight title, Arum insisted to reporters that it was a title fight.
“It’s Bob Arum’s super featherweight championship,” Arum said jokingly, [I think].
Asked if he had a belt for his title, Arum replied, “I have a bank account – I write the checks. I’ll charge sanctioning fees – 10% sanctioning fees.”
Everyone laughed but the fight was billed as being for the WBC Inter-Continental Super Featherweight Championship.
It’s no wonder why the casual fan is confused. Unlike the Miss America pageant, boxing is not a beauty contest. Championships and rankings should be determined inside the ring, not on who will bring in the largest sanctioning fee. Many of the rankings fail to achieve consistency or objectivity, and as a result they are highly suspect, and detrimental to the sport, fighter’s careers and safety.
