Boxing Structure

Hi guys, I have a question for you, I watch boxing for a long time, but I never really understand the structure that are behind of professional boxing. In MMA it's simple, you have some organizations, number 1 is UFC, they have a promoter, you have a roster of fighters and they are fighting at UFC events, a PPV per month, Fight Night per week etc.

Ok, but what is the structure in boxing? You have multiple organizations like WBA, WBO, WBC.. and promoters like Don King, but that promoters works for one organzation (WBA or WBC or IBF) like Dana did it for UFC? And why that organizations doesn't have rights for the boxing fights that disputed under their brand, like UFC have rights for their fights and put it on their YouTube channle, on their network, UFC Fight Pass.

Why boxing fights is archived on television networks (like HBO Boxing) and not on WBC archive? And where you could see official roster of professional boxing, any organizations doesn't have a site like UFC where you can see a list of fighters.. boxers even have contracts with that organizations (WBA, WBC)? I don't understand the structure that boxing have.

@sotherino

It can get very confusing but what you're talking about is known as "Boxing politics".



I think the first thing to understand is that the organisations like the WBA, WBO, WBC, IBO and IBF are "sanctioning bodies" and not promotions. They do not have a roster of fighters contracted to them but they each have their own champions that they declare according to their own criteria. For example, Anthony Joshua is the IBO, WBO, IBF and WBA Heavyweight World champion but he is not contracted exclusively to any of them like Stipe Miocic is to the UFC. He is promoted by Eddie Hearn who is the manager of the promotional organisation "Matchroom Sport". Eddie's job is simply to drum up interest for fights in order to make as money as possible for Anthony Joshua and himself. To make things more confusing, if Anthony Joshua were to split from Eddie Hearn and Matchroom and join a rival boxing promotion like Top Rank, he would still hold the IBO, WBO, IBF and WBA Heavyweight World titles as they are separate from promotions such as Matchroom and Top Rank.

Tyson Fury on the other hand holds the WBC Heavyweight World Championship title and is also regarded to be the "Lineal Heavyweight World Champion" (I'll happily explain the "Lineage" in another reply if you want me to but explaining it in this reply would just make this answer even more unreadable than it already is). Anyway, this effectively means that both Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are Heavyweight World Champions. At the moment, there are 2 Heavyweight World Champions and often even more World Champions in the lower weight classes. If they fight each other to become the undisputed Heavyweight World champion (as the winner would have won the other fighter's belt/belts and unified all of the worlds major boxing belts in the Heavyweight division) then that fight would be made as a result of Matchroom (Joshua) and Top Rank (who Fury has a "co-promotional deal" with) negotiating things such as how the money from the ticket sales would be split between the boxers (it's not always 50/50 as one side always argues that about 75% of the fans there would be supporting their boxer so they should get 75% of the ticket sales, ect.), how much money from TV deals should each fighter get, where the fight should be held, should their be a rematch clause and so on. It's effectively a business negotiation between two companies trying to make as much money for themselves as possible.

Going back to the issue of the different sanctioning bodies (WBC, IBO, WBO, IBF, WBA), another important thing to know about them is that they each have a "Mandatory Challenger" who is a boxer that they declare deserves a shot at the title. Once they announce who the "Mandatory Challenger" is then their current champion has to fight them within a certain amount of time. If they don't then they are stripped of their belt and the "Mandatory Challenger" is declared the champion by default. I know this makes it sound like like both the boxers are contracted to them but they "sanction" the fight rather than "promote" it. Basically, if a fight gets arranged by the boxer's promoters and there's a belt on the line then that belt's sanctioning body basically says "this fight meets our specific criteria and will recognize the winner as the champion". There's not much point to these sanctioning bodies and new ones are poping up and dying all the time.

In fights where there are no belts on the line (most fights) then the sanctioning bodies basically just watch the fight and move the boxers up or down in their own ranking accordingly (the higher up in the ranking a boxer is, the more chance they've got of getting a shot at the title). Each sanctioning body has a different way of ranking fighters. The same fighters appear in the rankings of the other sanctioning bodies as well because again, the fighters are not contracted any specific sanctioning body. Kinda like each user on this site building their rankings, obviously there will be a lot of overlap.

In very simplistic terms, a boxer has a promoter who manages the business side of things. The promoters negotiate the financial aspects of the fight with the promoter of the other boxer. When/if they come to an agreement then a contract is signed and the two boxers are set to fight. The trouble is that a lot of these negotiations break down due to loads of different factors (this is why Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua haven't fought each other) but often it is due to a boxer "ducking" out of a fight (not wanting the fight). A lot of the time boxing politics stops the world's best fighters from fighting each other.



I know this was a long and confusing read but boxing politics can get very confusing. Let me know if there are any parts that are poorly worded or if you want me to clarify anything. I hope this helps!

* Edited at 07.23.2020, 4:02 PM ET *

Also known as what ruined boxing

@stephenterry great answer buddy. You can join professor fishrats bookclub any time.

Also promoter's taking commissions and judges out for dinner party's the night before a fight to ensure their guy wins. Teddy Atlas revealed some of this stuff. Very corrupt system.

@freemoneyforall

Thanks, hopefully I've helped a little bit.

Sadly, you are correct when you say boxing is a very corrupt business. The levels of corruption in boxing due to boxing politics is absolutely disgusting.

Yeah id rate it completely broken at the upper echelon even matchmaking is a joke.
Like all politics and bodies of after 100 or so years needs restructured. 

@ImperatorFishrat

That's not a bad idea at all! It would force them to actually fight more and it would also help to reduce the number of low blows in boxing as well as there are many boxers who try to get a sneaky low blow in during a clinch, hoping that the ref won't see. Maybe there could be a limit of 3 per round and any after that they get a point reduction or something along those lines.

They should go old school unlimited rounds

@free

I would like to see no judges for big fights, so the fight would end in a KO, TKO, or draw.

@tepid. Yup that would be cool. 

Stop being a little girl fish. I say no refs too!

@fishrat

I said no judges, the referee would still be able to stop the fight.  If the fight went the distance, it would be a draw since there are no judges.

To the death that would be ******* awesome

They can just make a new league like BKB, doubt any top talent would bother.
Like fish said increases risk, also people train to win fights not to just get quick kos or hour long beatings.
While we're at bring back celebrity death match and run it by challenge, love to see berny and trump go at it.
My prediction death by stroke or cardiac first round other guy dies laughing world is better place.