As it is, the amount of belts floating around is so much that, to paraphrase a famous quote, even if you have a few champions in a line up with their trunks, boots, robes and belts, no one would know who they are and what they do. Besides Oscar De La Hoya, there is no real mainstream figure in the sport of Boxing today, as you mentioned. Sure, Floyd Mayweather Jr. may have some recognition nowadays (mostly due to his drubbing of Arturo Gatti and his 5/5 challenge against De La Hoya). And while the early 80s had ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard to take Muhammad Ali’s mantle (and Mike Tyson to take Ali’s place at Heavyweight as the next big drawing champion), there really is no sign of a future superstar. While Ali, Leonard & Tyson could all justifiable call themselves ‘the man’ at the weight classes they dominated at their times, there just is no way for Joe Average to know who Junior Witter is. There is no fighter out there with the mix of charisma, talent and big wins to build himself as the man to potentially rise above ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson on the all-time lists.

But yeah, I’m not a fan of the sanctioning bodies at all. I understand why the UFC, PRIDE, K-1, etc. exist in competition, as they are corporate entities which hold fighters to exclusive contracts to fight only for them, so they want to have their own set of belts, just like WWE, TNA, NJPW, AJPW, etc. have their own belts in Pro Wrestling. In Boxing, however, these bodies purport that they are merely there to ‘deservingly’ recognize the ‘true’ champions (who are willing to pay their sanctioning fees for eliminators and title fights). Of course, these bodies often link themselves with promoters such as Don King and Bob Arum in order to try and ‘take over’ the big picture and make as much money as possible. While King, Arum and so forth try to get options on challengers to the crown, the sanctioning bodies get to win as they will be getting their friendly promoters to run fights and give them their fees to extend their lives even longer.

Do I think that a national sanctioning body or major league entity such as the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL would work for Boxing (or even MMA), though? No. Because, for all the problems that these bodies cause, having one entity that can be susceptible to corruption and the whims of a few executives can only cause so many more problems. Perhaps in a Plato’s Republic-type world with a benevolent leader can you control a combat sport industry as such, but given that combat sports traditionally do not have unions or other safety measures to counter the promoters/owners, there will be no counter balance to really ensure that fighters get their deserving shots or that they won’t have their purses cut into (although a national organization could theoretically audit the promoters to see if such undercuttings are happening). Also, money talks and the biggest fights may not be #1 vs. #2 in a weight class.

You’re right about there needing to be one champion per division.

I’d like to see belts at:

135
145
155
170
185
210
Heavyweight

For boxing to have a chance, they need to revamp their weight classes. First, they need to remove the 5 lowest weight classes, which are 118, 115, 112, 108, & 105. When is the last time there has been a fight in any of these weight classes that has really been a showcase fight? Once in a long while there will be at 118 (Bantam), but not enough to keep the weight class.

Secondly, they need to have 10 maximum weight classes going from Heavyweight to Strawweight. A reorganizing and renaming of these weight classes would probably be needed. Here is how I would do it if I could wave a magic wand:

- Heavyweight – Unlimited
- Cruiserweight – 200 lbs.
- Light Heavyweight – 180 lbs.
- Middleweight – 165 lbs.
- Welterweight – 155 lbs.
- Lightweight – 147 lbs.
- Featherweight – 140 lbs.
- Bantamweight – 134 lbs.
- Flyweight – 129 lbs.
- Strawweight – 125 lbs.

After that, they need to have 1 World Champion per weight class. Anything short of this, and the sport is doomed.