Boxing will crown two undisputed heavyweight champions weeks apart as the top division slowly begins to show signs of cracking despite a resurgence.
Riydah Season investors have been praised for helping the sport achieve recent fights. Many of those may have never been possible without a massive cash injection.
But things have taken a turn and could go sour very quickly.
Those behind the Middle Eastern events want to have their own titles involved in fights. This became apparent in the build-up to two huge heavyweight headliners.
Two undisputed heavyweight champions
A second undisputed ruler will follow once the first in 25 gets ordained on February 17.
The forthcoming clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will already have the four title belts needed when the pair collide in a month. The winner will be the lineal and undisputed top-division ruler.
However, Saudi Arabia organizers of the ‘Ring of Fire’ event decided to commission a new championship. That’s despite Fury vs Usyk having the undisputed WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF straps recipe.
Whoever comes out on top will already be the universally recognized undisputed king. But shockingly, for many, a new undisputed title belt was displayed at the press event for Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou.
Many in the sport thought the title was being shown off before being added to the Fury vs Usyk showdown at first. That wasn’t the case. It soon became apparent that the belt was confirmed for the winner of Joshua vs Ngannou.
It’s hard to see how Joshua or Ngannou can be crowned anything in the ‘four-belt’ sphere. Neither has the victories or the sanctioning.
On the face of it, having Saudi Arabian investors giving fans everything they dreamed of comes at a price. The total cost of that is yet to play out.
Unfathomable
The unfathomable chain of events begins February 17, but the screw will start to turn on March 8 at Josuha vs Ngannou.
The belt was front and center at the kick-off presser for AJ vs Ngannou. It can only be seen as a threat to those already in the sport.
Crowning an undeserved champion as the undisputed just three weeks after the sport finally gets a bonafide one after a quarter of a century seems like a kick in the teeth.
If Fury wins, he undoubtedly won’t be happy. To see either of his rivals walk around with a new undisputed title weeks later and call themselves the champ twenty days later could cause trouble.
The question is, how can the Saudis be told ‘no more belts’ when they pump in so much money to the fighters? – That’s where Fury may not have an argument. Boxing fans may have to get used to a new normal.
In contrast, plenty in the sport want to see the sanctioning bodies given a reality check after decades of monopolization. This new happening could be the biggest threat to that four-way domination in the sport’s history.
By Phil Jay