Good morning Breadman,
Do you think the sanctioning bodies have a shaky future in boxing? With the TKO Holdings Saudi backed Zuffa promotion emerging out the shadows and slowly building a very respectable roster, I smell a strong shift starting in the way many fighters now negatively perceive the belts and sanctioning bodies as just money hungry crooks who live large off the ridiculous extravagant sanctioning fees they charge fighters to hold their belts. High profile boxers like Crawford and Shakur Stevenson have recently came out and criticised the WBC for this behaviour in playing god with the fighters when it comes to fees and defending belts. The way I see it, a line in the sand was drawn with Jai Opetaia being stripped by the IBF title as Zuffa was going to crown the winner of Opetaia v Brandon Glanton fight their first champ, so I suspect the other three will follow suit and strip any current champion immediately who signs with Zuffa. I don’t see this as good for the big four, especially if the Saudis continue to bankroll the big fights as they seem to be firmly in the process of slowly freezing out the big four belts and sanctioning bodies and most of the big promoters as well! And putting all their financial weight and muscle towards the Dana White led Zuffa model which will soon award its own world title belts in eight divisions. Let’s not forget, they also own the Ring magazine belt which is a prestigious belt in its own right held in very high esteem in the world of boxing. All in all, I see a bleak future for the big four who I think will always probably survive but their belts just won’t be considered as prestigious and glamorous as they used to be as more fighters fed up with the current landscape will defect to Zuffa. PPV fights for the big four’s belts will be on a smaller scale and purses not what they were as promoter TV platform deals are declining and dying. Zuffa has shown their hand early with the one fight $15m Conor Benn deal so it shows they not scared to overpay and create some shockwaves through the industry!Â