Poor judging, bad match-making, too many belts - is boxing broken? We don't think so
Boxing is the greatest sport in the world, at least, that's what any boxing fan will tell you. There's something about the juxtaposition of brutality and nobility in boxing that inspires a kind of respect and admiration which just can't be matched.
Sure, football fans (or soccer depending on where you're reading this) are passionate and numerous, baseball fans love baseball and cricket fans love cricket, but there is a level of respect that true boxing fans have for the fighters which surely runs deeper.
Boxers, of course, aren't the only athletes who put their bodies on the line for their vocation - just check out any decent rugby match. However, in rugby, you have an entire team backing you - a boxer steps into the ring alone.
For a boxer, there is no one to lean on when they have nothing left in the tank - they are entirely exposed - their strengths, determination, weaknesses and shortcomings all laid out for the world to see.
Even in other combat sports there just isn't anything quite like it, except perhaps for MMA, with it's recent rise in popularity putting the fighters under the same spotlight and scrutiny that boxer's face.
Of course, there is no such thing as the world's greatest sport - it's all subjective, but if there were, true boxing fans would put forward a strong argument in its favour.
How can it be then, that a sport so loved by its fans, has them banging their heads against the wall with such regularity?
The sources of frustration are numerous. Why are there so many sanctioning bodies and why so many belts? Why do we so often see poor decisions from the judges and why are those poor decisions allowed to go unchecked? Why do we see so many mismatches and why do the fights that we really want happen so rarely?
There are a lot of questions there, enough perhaps to conclude without further discussion that yes, boxing is broken, but don't be hasty, let's take a closer look.
Why are there so many sanctioning bodies and why so many belts?
It's hard to imagine now, but there was once a time when there could be only one universally-recognised champion of the world in any given weight class at any given time.
While undisputed status is still achievable, it is a much taller mountain to climb in modern boxing.
There are currently 4 major sanctioning bodies in boxing - the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF, with the IBO working its way into recognition.
The Klitschko brothers once held all of the major belts between them
To confuse matters further, the WBC offer 'Diamond' and 'Silver' versions alongside the main version of their championship, while the WBA present 'regular' and 'super' titles.
As fans, we all want to know who the best of the best is, and in boxing, the best way we have of measuring that is to crown undisputed champions.
To be recognised as undisputed, you currently need to collect the WBO, IBF, WBA Super, and the main version of the WBC championship. This is no easy task.
Assuming those belts are all divided, even if you already hold one of them you'd still have to beat three other world champions to claim the others. That's three world-class performances that you'd need to string together back to back.
And then there are the mandatories. If for example, you hold two belts, one (or both) of those organisations might demand that you fight their mandatory challenger in the next fight, which can prevent you from seeking out the other two. In some cases, mandatory obligations have even meant that fighters have been forced to vacate belts.
Right now Anthony Joshua holds the WBA, IBF and WBO belts - three of the four major titles which he fought hard to amass and fought even harder to reclaim after losing them.
The WBC strap is held by Tyson Fury, the man responsible for dispersing the belts that Joshua now holds.
Without question, the biggest fight in boxing right now is Joshua vs Fury. It would crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis and answer that burning question - 'who is the best heavyweight on the planet?'
Unfortunately, there are several obstacles to overcome before this fight can ever be made. Joshua has been ordered to fight IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev, and the WBO are pressing for their mandatory, Oleksandr Usyk to get his shot.
On top of that, Fury is contracted for a third fight with former WBC champ Deontay Wilder, and WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte surely has to be next in line after already waiting two years for his shot at the coveted green belt.
As if this wasn't messy enough, we then have to consider how difficult matchmaking is in professional boxing. The belts might be in place for unification, the mandatories may have stepped aside, the fight should be going ahead, then come the disagreements over financial splits, or where the fight should be held, or who walks to the ring first (yes this happens).
So are all of these sanctioning bodies/belts really necessary, and are they harmful to boxing? It depends on how you look at it.
In an ideal world, there would be one governing body, crowning one champion per weight class, and once upon a time, that model worked. However, as boxing expanded over the decades it was only natural that other organisations would emerge.
Think about it, would we really want, say, the WBC controlling everything? Given their treatment of Dillian Whyte recently can you imagine how the boxing landscape would look if they had sole authority over who gets to be a world champion?
Having four sanctioning bodies is frustrating, there's no question about that, but the alternative could be worse.
Let's also consider if there was only one championship belt available. How often would we get to see the title fights that we all love so dearly? Boxing is a punishing sport, with each fight requiring months of preparation. In each weight class, a champion might fight only two-three times a year at most. Compare that to football where a team can play every weekend.
For all the confusion that four championship belts bring, they also give us so much and provide so much more opportunity for fighters to achieve world champion status. How long would the waiting list be for a crack at a title if there was only one?
Jack Johnson (second from left) was the heavyweight champion of the world between 1908 and 1915, when only one title existed
Why do we see so many mismatches in boxing and why do the fights that we really want happen so rarely?
So you splashed out for PPV to watch a handful of Olympians beat up on electricians and a world champion fight someone you've never heard of and now you want your money back. Welcome to boxing.
The above is a slight exaggeration, but it's no secret that boxing fans are often dissatisfied with matchmaking in the professional ranks. So are things really that bad?
I don't have any official stats for you, but I'd confidently bet that the number of mismatches in boxing aren't nearly as numerous as they seem.
It all depends on what cards you watch. If you're only ever exposed to Matchroom cards featuring former Team GB members then yes, you are going to see a few walkovers, but there is a good reason for this.
Mismatches are particularly prevalent in the early stages of a prospect's career when management teams and promoters are concerned with putting together a winning streak, building their charge's confidence and get them accustomed to the pro game.
While it's true that one-sided fights are no fun for anyone, in the sport of boxing this 'easing-in' is a necessity if you are trying to build a future star of the sport.
Take tennis, for example. If a relative novice with a bright future ahead of her finds herself in a series of tough matches early in her career, it won't do her any harm and will even stand her in good stead for the future.
In boxing, however, every tough match can take something out of a fighter and the last thing you want is for a promising prospect to have aged beyond his years by the time he reaches his tenth pro fight. You have to consider career longevity.
You will find as a general trend, that most prospects start entering into more competitive match-ups around the 15-20 fight mark.
With that said, the boxing community appear to be growing less tolerant of losses and for that reason, some fighters are coddled for longer to help maintain winning records. In a recent article discussing the future for the loser of Dubois vs Joyce (if it happens), we discussed this phenomenon of in more detail.
So we can, to an extent, be a bit more understanding as to why we don't always see the best young prospects battling it out, but what about the world champions and the number one contenders? Why aren't they all fighting each other? If you stop to think about it, they are, perhaps just not as often as we would like.
We've already discussed the matchmaking difficulties that come as a result of having numerous sanctioning bodies, and this plays a significant part in the problem, but we also have to consider that Boxing just isn't like most other sports.
In football, a tournament such as the World Cup can pitch the best teams against each other over a matter of weeks, but in boxing that just isn't possible.
This doesn't mean that we aren't getting the fights that we want, it just means we have to wait a lot longer for them - that's boxing.
In the past few years alone we've been treated to Fury-Wilder, AJ-Klitschko, Pacquiao-Thurman, Smith-Groves, Linares-Lomachenko, Taylor-Prograis, Golovkin-Canelo, Taylor-Persoon, Usyk-Briedis, Inoue-Donaire, Frampton-Santa Cruz - the list goes on and on.
This isn't to suggest that any frustrations are unfounded - we do need to see less coddling of prospects and more 50 - 50 match-ups. We do need to see the top fighters facing each other more frequently. However, we as fans are far from hard done by.
A little perspective goes a long way, and by understanding the issues faced by match-makers in boxing, we can perhaps have a greater appreciation for all of the incredible fights that we do get to see, and perhaps show a little more patience for the ones that we are still waiting for.
Why do we so often get poor decisions from the judges and why are those poor decisions allowed to go unchecked?
This is perhaps the biggest point of contention in professional boxing, causing the most outrage for fans, pundits, fighters and coaching teams, but still, it continues and still, it goes unchecked. There is no excuse for this one.
As was mentioned at the start of this article, boxing is subjective and so we must appreciate that everyone views a fight differently. We shouldn't pay too much attention to the cries of 'robbery' that go out after close decisions, but far too often we are seeing scorecards that just cannot be justified.
This is detrimental to the sport, sparking rumours of corruption and match-fixing, and although that type of thing surely has gone on, generally, the cause of the problem is less nefarious.
At the route of most bad decisions, you will likely find the cause to be anything from blatant incompetency to unconscious bias.
What do we mean by unconscious bias? Have you ever watched a boxing match with the volume turned off? Give it a go and you might find that your perception of the fight changes drastically without the commentary telling you who is 'winning'.
The Judges may not be able to hear the commentators, but they can certainly hear the crowd who will roar each time their man throws a punch, whether it lands or not.
Judges are also susceptible to the media and the rhetoric surrounding fights and fighters. Even the strictest professional can go to judge a fight already knowing subconsciously who is 'supposed' to win. It's a well-known fact in boxing that the 'away' fighter often faces an uphill battle.
A boxer's safest bet is to take the decision out of the judges' hands
This needs to be addressed. I'd like to see the introduction of an independent body that has the power to review controversial decisions and hold judges accountable. Fighters put too much on the line to have decisions taken away from them by poor judging.
The Verdict
Boxing is far from perfect. There is a lot that can be improved upon. The sanctioning bodies need to work together to help unifications happen, the promoters and management teams need to worry less about protecting unbeaten records and concern themselves more with making great fights, and something has to be done about inadequate judging.
But is boxing broken? I'd argue not. It's just a vastly different sport to almost any other which means it can't possibly function in the same manner. When we understand this, we can cut boxing some slack and look at it with a sense of renewed appreciation.
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