..this is how it feels when your world means nothing at all

by Byron Wicker

Are you a champion? I don’t mean in some metaphorical way. Are you literally a champion. You may be and not even know it. The proliferation of governing bodies mean that more people every day are being recognized as World Boxing Champions. In certain parts of the UK, it is estimated that one in five people hold a title of some description. Last week, I accidentally bumped into an old lady in the post office. She had to sit down to settle herself. Out of nowhere, a bloke in a tux jumped out, slipped a belt round me and before I knew it, I was the IBU Super- Middleweight champ. If you have four friends who are not, to your knowledge, recognized champions- the chances are that you own at least an Inter-Continental belt.

It’s easy to mock, but boxing only has itself to blame. I’ll put my cards on the table here: I love boxing. Unlike some MMA fans, who seem to think that boxing is some evil empire which must be derided and finally destroyed, I think that the two sports can co-exist. Boxing is the closest relative MMA has in the world of major sport; in many cases we use the same halls and even the same rings. I would love to see MMA reach the level of popularity and acceptance the boxing has achieved. In fact, I believe it has the potential to surpass it, but to grow we should look at the mistakes of our older brother so we can avoid falling into the same traps.

trust

Driving down the A1 from a show last week, in the early hours(it’s a tough life the hurtbusiness), they were talking boxing on the radio. Ricky Hatton’s promoter, Dennis Hobson took aim at a regular target of disintegration. In the good old days, there were eight weight divisions with one world champ in each. People knew where they stood and what to trust. These days, there are four Heavyweight Champions and even boxing fans can’t name them (answer a the end of the article if you want to try).

Of course, there is something in this argument, but Hobson undersold the scale of it and didn’t spell out the reasons for the situation. Only four World Heavyweight champs? I assume he meant WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO. What about the WBU, IBU, IBC, WBF and IBO versions? Basically, if you Google any combination of three letters including a B, you’ve got an even money chance of hitting a boxing governing body. Anyone can set one up. The might of the World Boxing Union pulls the strings of global pugilism from Upwell, Cambridgeshire. They haven’t got a Heavyweight champ at the moment; so give them a bell if you’re carrying a few pounds and fancy a shot. If they wont have you, register a company name with a B in it and set up shop on your own.

What it must come down to is the fighters who hold the belts. For me, it can only be the mighty WBF (World Boxing Foundation, as if you didn’t know). What true fight fan will ever forget Johnny Nelson’s twelve rounder with the Samoan Jimmy Thunder in 1994 and his glorious reign as king of the Heavies before being defeated by Adilson Rodriguez the following year. The noble run of UK WBF Champ’s continued with Joe Bugner (1998, honestly) and, in perhaps the organisation’s greatest era: Audley ‘A-Force’ Harrison’s three fight reign in 2004. Will we ever see his like again?

worth

Seriously, there is an unofficial pecking order, which probably runs WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, the rest. So which of these prestigious titles does Hobson charge and hero of the British ring Ricky Hatton hold? The IBO of course. He ditched his recently won IBF title so that he could pick the fight he wanted. He is constantly getting called out by WBC champ Junior Witter. Does he care? There’s not as much money or glory in a Witter fight as there is in other fights, so the Witter fight will not happen. This tells us all we need to know. World titles in boxing are devalued to the point of being worthless. This has a knock on effect down the ladder. British, European and Commonwealth belts, not to mention the countless variations such as EU and Intercontinental, are skipped in the rush for ‘World’ glory.

So what has this got to do with MMA? From what I see around the UK, plenty. The last show I was at, five belts were awarded: three British titles, one Junior British title and a British Open title. All very nice, but what does it mean? Who sanctions these titles? I haven’t got a Scooby. It seems that every promoter dishes out belts to whoever they see fit and calls them what they like. That’s up to them, but I can’t see what good it is doing anyone. In the UK, shows do business on word of mouth and the quality of the bill. Whether or not titles are awarded is immaterial to most punters. To say how much hostility there is to pro-boxing, it’s surprising how keen some of the MMA fraternity are to ape it’s biggest errors. Billing scraps in drafty leisure centres as World title fights will only make us look silly. And why the obsession with belts? A trophy looks better on the mantelpiece and most fighters would prefer a decent cheque.

truth

To create true champions, ones that can be trusted, MMA should look to other examples. In Muay Thai, the World titles are as devalued as the boxing equivalents.(not surprisingly, the WBC now have their snout in the trough) It carries far more respect in Thailand to be a stadium champ at Lumpinee or Rajadamnern than a world champ. This model would work in the UK. Drop all the World, European and British bobbins and slug it out for the promoter’s title.

K-1 operate an even more enticing system. Their tournament system creates massive events, culminating in the huge finale in Tokyo. Grappling has the Abu Dhabi. Coming soon, we have the 10k Grappling Challenge at the exotic Hackney Empire. To me this makes perfect sense. Every other major sport decides its champions through some form of knockout system, building to a final. Football, rugby, all the US sports. In amateur boxing, where the aim is to find the best fighter rather than  hunt the biggest pay day, a knockout format leads to the finals of the ABAs, the Golden Gloves and the Olympics. Go back in time to the roots of organised athletics: the ancient Olympics. The Greek discipline of pankration, which is MMA’s closest ancestor, pitted the best of the best against each other in a no holds barred competition. It’s all about who the best man is on one given day.

myth 

The whole notion of the good old days when every one knew who the champion fighter was has a fatal flaw. Saying you can’t be the man until you beat the man is nonsense. Italy are World Football Champions and will be until the next tournament. The fact that they never beat the previous champs, Brazil, is irrelevant. We accept this with all modern sports with the exception of fight sports.

In the twenties, Jack Dempsey went off to Hollywood to be an actor for three years and took the Heavyweight title with him; reducing the earning potential of a generation of fighters. A few years earlier, a succession of champions ducked Jack Johnson, hiding behind the ‘principle’ of not fighting negroes. When Tommy Burns finally defended against Johnson he was beaten out of sight. Desperate white supremacists argued that Johnson was not the true champion as he had never defeated ‘the man: retired, undefeated champ Jim Jeffries. ‘Jeff’ was dragged from his farm to uphold the honour of the white race- getting a pasting for his trouble in the 'fight of the century' with Johnson at Reno in 1910. The idea that that you have to defeat the current holder of a title exists nowhere in major sport outside of boxing (and of course pro-wrestling if you count that).

The ‘sport of the future’ needs to get over the obsession with copying the worst excesses of boxing. Title holders and promoters can abuse the position. Worse, the inevitable spread of titles means the poor promoters will end up with less money in their pockets. As always, the best answer is a knockout. The last show I was at had a four man Light Heavyweight Tournament- a grand for the winner. Everyone- fighters and punters alike understood the format and what was at stake. Sticking the words Inter-Continental on the front would not have enhanced the competition. Sticking a nought on the end of the cheque may have. If there is any objection to fighting more than once in a night, spread it over a few promotions. This will build interest for the final- kerching. Rival promotions could put their guys in together for an end of year Superfight.

We could even call it the World series.

The four Heavyweight Champions are:

WBC Oleg Maskaev 

WBA Nicolay Valuev

IBF Wladimir Klitschko

WBO Shannon Briggs

Albert Sosnowski is the current WBF champ.