Will Boxing give us a Unified Light-Heavyweight King? by Armando Paz The boxing purist has been cynical of the modern boxing system that has four major sanctioning bodies and an additional lineal champion. At times, this means we have a WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, and even a fifth Ring/Lineal champion. For example, back in 2009 when Manny Pacquiao defeated Ricky Hatton he was given credit for earning a sixth divisional title. This was because Hatton despite not owning one of the major sanctioning titles was still regarded as the Ring/Lineal champion. Although the sport of boxing has plethora of major and minor titles there have been modern attempts to try to coronate one unified champion in a division. Old school boxing fans harp back to the day when there were only eight lineal champions in eight divisions. In the 1980’s Don King helped bring the sport a unified heavyweight champion by having unification bouts that would result in Mike Tyson becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Tyson wouldn’t just defeat Trevor Berbick (WBC) and become the youngest heavyweight champion of the world at the age of 20—he also would be the first undisputed heavyweight champion in over a decade which would help restore stability and prestige back to the division. Tyson would defeat James “Bonecrusher” Smith (WBA) and Tony “TNT” Tucker (IBF) via decision to have all three major title trinkets around his waist. As Michael Spinks was still regarded as the Ring/lineal champion after his wins over Larry Holmes; there was still unfinished business for Tyson to prove his undisputed status. Tyson would silence any naysayers by disposing Spinks in 91 seconds. For those who thought Holmes was really still the champion due to being in the receiving end of a dubious split-decision in his rematch with Spinks—Tyson would also silence them by defeating Holmes in four rounds. Read more: ringnews24/world-boxing-news/item/11645-unified-light-heavyweight#
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:11:13 +0000
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