With over 80 men walking the earth and claiming to be a ‘world champion’, the great Floyd Mayweather believes enough is finally enough.
Mayweather won more than his fair share of shiny belts in a truly outstanding career, but feels the proliferation of titles is deeply harmful to the boxing game.
He admitted some culpability with his star fighter Gervonta Davis somehow competing for the WBA Super 130lbs and WBA Regular 135lbs titles at the Alamodome in San Antonio on October 31. But Mayweather says the sport simply has to change, singling out the WBA for its ridiculous ‘Super’, ‘Regular’ and ‘Interim’ ‘world title’ system.
“I don’t care if it’s Top Rank, if it’s Golden Boy [Promotions], if it’s Mayweather Promotions, if it’s PBC – there’s too many champions in the sport of boxing right now. Too many champions,” said Mayweather during Davis’ open workout in Las Vegas, which was streamed live on Showtime Sports’ YouTube channel. “[There’s] no such thing as a Super champion, not at all. And I’m not taking nothing away from no fighter. It’s too many belts.
“Let me tell people what’s going on in the sport of boxing, why there’s so many different titles and so many different belts. [Most] people don’t know you have to pay, for every belt that you win, there’s a sanctioning fee. So now, if a fighter wins an Interim belt, he has to pay a sanctioning fee. If a fighter has just the Regular belt, he has to pay a sanctioning fee. Then, if a fighter is a Super champion, then he has to pay a sanctioning fee. This is not good for the sport of boxing. Now, when a fighter fights, every fighter is a champion now. Belts now is like a fighter winning an amateur trophy. Everybody is a champion. Everybody [has] a belt.
“I don’t want to knock no fighter, but I’m tired of seeing fighters after the fight, everybody got a championship belt now,” added Mayweather. “Now boxing, all these belts is like trophies. The WBC, the WBA, the IBF and the WBO, you all have to clean this shit up. You all have to clean this up. This is bad for boxing.
“Ain’t a such thing as no Super champion. You guys are just taking extra money from all these fighters, getting extra money from sanctioning fees. And this goes for my company as well. We got to clean this sport of boxing up. This shit, this don’t look good. When you look on TV now, everybody’s a champion. You see all these fighters posing with a belt.”