Shenanigans.

Since Rodriguez is the mandatory, it makes perfect sense that the title fight for the now-vacant belt will be between – get this – Isaac Hlatshwayo and Rafal Jackiewicz. Yes, the IBF enforced a mandatory for Clottey against someone who was injured and unable to fight, and then decided to pass over the mandatory because he was injured, which is one of the most hypocritical, ass-backwards things I’ve seen a sanctioning body do.

This almost reminds me of a documentary show on cable a while back that was called “Most Evil” or something like that, where some quack descibed a point system he uses to give serial killers “evil ratings.” Like, Ted Bundy is four points eviler than Ed Geene, but two points less evil than Dahmer… etc. It’s almost impossible to tell which organization is the most corrupt anymore, but the IBF makes a good case. Does anyone remember when Oscar dropped his IBF belt rather than face the IBF’s mystery mandatory of the month, Miguel Julio? I was glad Oscar did that, because he said in no uncertain terms that the fight was a farce and basically called the IBF a bunch of rotten crooks, which they were.

I was looking forward to a unification, but what can you do with the stupidity of the IBF.

I read this news yesterday and rushed over to their website just to look at their “top of the line rankings,” and get this Joshua Clottey was no longer shown as their champion. Boy, they did not waste any time did they.

Boxing needs a hero right now to sort this out.

Has De La Hoya got enough to buy the main 4 belts?

What we need is one all powerful body, abiding by a solid set of rules – I don’t care if there’s 3 or 4 belts, (I love unifications), but there needs to be one solid worldwide governing body – it’s the reason UFC is doing so well – they’re in control – the big fights are made, the undercards solid.

Come on Oscar – save us!

keein track of who holds titles is next to impossible lately … everyones being stripped, interim titlist, super champs ordinary champs … i give up … ring or nothin imo

Why dont they just seed the contenders and make that public? Then when Delvin goes down, the number 2 guy takes his place and delvin drops down one for him to recover… or to third if they need to do a vacant title fight. Then hes the top contender for that fights winner. Nothing in this situation would have changed except who Clottey backed out of fighting and who got screwed.

Excellent article Brick.

These ABCs harm the sport more than help it…

all seems a bit bewildering…

Its good to see everyone is as confused as me. Its good the belts are around but they need to simplify it so the is a champion and contenders. If they make it easy to follow more people will want to follow

I think boxing has too many belts and too many divisions. I would like to see one champ and only have HW, CW, LHW, MW, WW, LW, FW, BW, FW, and MW. There were many more licensed fighters in the 50s(and other decades but this was the highest I believe) and far fewer belts. Boxing in that era was far more successful, I think with one champ in fewer divisions you eliminate crap like this that confuses your average sports fan, and even confuses your die hard sweet science fan, to the point where the average fan doesn’t follow boxing.

I’d also like 15 rounds back, but I’d settle for 13.

The ABC organisations are the boil on boxings arse.
Year on year they consistently get worse and we scratch our heads saying “oh here they go again”. Until someone who cant be corrupted and has a lot of cash to burn to organise a FIFA type organisation we are screwed and in this till it ends.
Support the Ring Champs and put the others where you like.