Unlike sports I’m more familiar with who have strong central authorities and therefore one way to become a champion, I’ve never really understood how the pieces all fit together for heavyweight boxing.
I’d be very grateful if someone can please paint a picture for me that covers some / all of the points below:
* In what different ways can you be a heavyweight boxing champion? For which orgs?
* What does it mean to be the undisputed champion or lineal champion, and are there any other kinds of champion I’ve missed here?
* What gives you the right to challenge another champion to take their position?
In: Other
Someone else has explained why there are different organisations, but to flesh it out:
Generally, Unified means the boxer holds at least two of the world champion belts at their weight class (eg WBA and WBC). Undisputed means the boxer holds all of the “main four” world champion belts at their weight class (ie WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF) plus usually the Ring Magazine title. There are other smaller organisations who hand out world titles, but they’re less recognised/regarded.
Lineal champion means “I’m the guy who beat the guy, who beat the guy, who beat the guy…” all the way back to that first world champion. But, it’s not a well supported thing. Sounds great, but in practice, with boxers retiring, or suspended/banned (either for drugs (Fury) or legal/political reasons (eg Ali)) then returning and winning, it makes it messy.
What gives you the right to challenge another champion? Well to quote Don King, “you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate”. Boxing organisations run ranking systems, but at the end of the day, it’s money (and sometimes fan pressure!). Ranked boxers might voluntarily step aside for a pay out, or be ignored with little punishment for the dodging champion. It’s a messy messy thing, and the biggest gripe of boxing fans.
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