World League of Boxing: The Time is Now!
By Ron DiMichele
06.02 - We all know the problems— cockeyed rankings, multiple champions, voodoo decisions, evil alliances. Read any boxing magazine, visit any website, listen to any fight commentator and you’ll soon be familiar with the long litany of boxing blights. But it’s time for boxing’s true believers to turn away from the sport’s many ills and take a solution-oriented approach. The time has come to introduce an entirely new format to professional boxing as we know it. The time has come for the World League of Boxing.
The two most respected and influential voices in present-day boxing are Ring Magazine and the broadcast crew of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. Ring Magazine deserves nothing but accolades for creating the most fair, sane, and understandable system for recognizing boxing champions in the boxing world today. The Friday Night Fights crew has jumped on board by acknowledging the Ring Magazine champions every chance they get. Ring Magazines ratings are compiled as follows:
"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 in one of two ways: by unifying all three alphabet titles in a division; or 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."
The Ring Magazine ratings system is respected because of the magazine’s objectivity. Ring Magazine has nothing to gain by who is champion or where a fighter is ranked. This has not always been true of boxing’s sanctioning bodies, who have historically been affiliated with certain promoters and possibly stood to profit by who was champion or who participated in a title fight.
The concept of the World League of Boxing is directed towards lifting the sport out of the dark underbelly of backroom deals and delivering it to the light of modern day sports administration. There are three major points to this new boxing format:
1) Numerical rankings of fighters based on a simple, sensible formula.
2) A seasonal approach to a year-round sport.
3) A unified governing body for boxing.
In the World League of Boxing, fighters would be given a numerical score based on wins and losses, quality of opponents, and number of fights in a given year. A fighter is rewarded for being active. The numerical score decides where a fighter is ranked in his respective weight division. This system works fine in professional tennis and it can work in boxing. With this method, subjectivity in boxing rankings is eliminated. Fighters are ranked by their personal boxing score. The route of backroom ranking deals or under-the-table payoffs is no longer feasible. The reason for a fighter’s ranking becomes clear.
The seasonal approach plays out like this: A champion is required to defend his title three times a year. One of these title defenses must be against the number one contender. Another title defense can be against a top ten fighter of the champion’s choosing. This gives a champion a break or tune-up fight and gives a long-shot the chance to fight for all the marbles. The third defense is against the winner of an annual tournament of top contenders. This tournament may or may not include the number one challenger who already gets a title shot. A single elimination tournament leading to a championship showdown is the epitome of sports entertainment. It works in all other major sports and, if given the chance, would work in boxing.
The administration of the World League of Boxing would require a unified governing body. This would be possible despite boxing’s current alphabet mess because the World League of Boxing is an entirely new system. As the World League of Boxing attained higher visibility and levels of public acceptance the need for other warring governing bodies would automatically be eliminated. They would serve no purpose. Rankings and championship bouts are determined by strict formulas, not by wheeling-dealing. The evil alliances would wither away and disappear on their own accord.
This system is not without wrinkles needing to be ironed out. But a unified system such as the World Boxing League would contribute to more honesty in boxing’s rankings, fewer and more meaningful champions, a reduction in mismatches, more easily enacted systems of health insurance and pensions for boxers, and perhaps even a boxer’s union. The World League of Boxing may sound radical, but strong sickness requires strong medicine. Systems such as the World League of Boxing have worked fine in other sports, isn’t it time boxing to get with the program?
Ron DiMichele’s email address is: rondimi@yahoo.com
