Floyd Mayweather Jr Speaks Out Against The Number Of World Titles
WBA “Regular” World Lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) is currently preparing for his showdown against WBA “Super” World Lightweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) on Halloween at the Alamodome in San Antonio. On October 22, he held a media workout session at the Mayweather Boxing Gym in Las Vegas. Davis was accompanied by his promoter and mentor, former five-division, and multiple-time world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The workout was aired live on Showtime’s YouTube channel. Mayweather was interviewed during the session and proceeded to indict the sport because, in his view, there are way too many world titles within a division.
“I wanna say this right now about the sport of boxing, and I want everybody at home to hear me when I say this. A belt, I’m tired and [when] I’m at home – and this goes for any company; I don’t care if it’s Top Rank, if it’s Golden Boy, if it’s Mayweather Promotions, if it’s PBC – there’s too many champions in the sport of boxing right now. Too many champions. It’s not a such thing as a super champion, not at all. And I’m not taking nothing away from no fighter. It’s too many belts.
And the reason why…, 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. 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.”
Mayweather went on to say that the four sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO) and promoters (including Mayweather Promotions) need to work together to clean up the sport.
HERE’S THE THING…
The proliferation of world titles within a division is something that is confusing and frustrating for sure. And Mayweather is correct to draw attention to how the creation of “Super” and “Regular” world champions by the WBA is in large part a cheap way to garner sanctioning fees.
He is also right in saying the best should fight the best and there should be essentially one established world champion within a division. However, if he truly feels that way, how come he has not applied this mantra towards his prized pupil, “Tank” Davis?
If “Money” is arguing there needs to be one main world champion per division, fair enough. Then the follow up question must be then, why has he not done what he needs to to do as a promoter to make that the goal for Tank, who has been a world champion since 2017? It has been no secret that former unified lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) has openly wanted a fight against Davis.
Furthermore, the 25-year-old-puncher from Baltimore has in return talked about fighting Lomachenko. Did Mayweather actively make efforts to put Davis in the ring against “Loma”? To many insiders, the answer is no.
As the folks know, on October 17, Lomachenko lost to Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs), who is now the WBA “Super”, WBO, and IBF Lightweight champion of the world. Assuming Davis defeats Santa Cruz, will we hear Floyd Mayweather call for a showdown between his fighter and Lopez in 2021? Until this fight against Santa Cruz, Davis has not fought a big-named opponent in their prime.
On the merits, Mayweather is spot-on with everything he says. Yet, it would just be nice if his talk was followed by true action, especially as it pertains to the man he is calling the future pay-per-view star.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
