Floyd Mayweather Criticizes Boxing for Having Too Many Championship Belts

Boxing has a large amount of titles across various weight classes, with belts awarded by the WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC, and retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn't a fan of the system. 

"This is not good for the sport of boxing," he said on Showtime (h/t Ben Baby of ESPN). "Now when a fighter fights, every fighter is a champion. ... Ain't no such thing as super champion."

Mayweather also criticized the role of sanctioning bodies in the number of belts available: "You guys are just taking extra money from all these fighters (by) getting extra money from sanctioning fees."

It can be a confusing system for boxing fans, calling into question who is indeed the top dog in any given weight class considering the number of titles available. 

But there's also deeper, fundamental concerns with the system. As Baby noted, boxing doesn't have a "single unified governing body to create rules and regulations." Instead, state athletic commissions and sanctioning bodies like the WBC and WBO handle those systems.

Changing boxing won't be easy and likely won't happen, if at all, for quite some time. 

Gilberto Mendoza, the president of the World Boxing Association, talked about the system during an interview with ESPN Deportes (h/t Miguel Rivera of BoxingScene.com):

"They tell me that there must be only one champion, but they don't give me solid arguments. They tell me that [the titles] are devalued, but when we talk about making a tournament to set a single champion, not everyone wants to enter it. When we talk about accepting a champion versus champion fight—not everyone is willing to take part.

"And on the other hand...a boxer with a title does better, a boxer who gets himself a title fight does better, a network that broadcasts a title fight does better, a promoter who has a title fight does better. The same fan [who complains], if he knows there is a title at stake, they are more attentive [to the fight]."

That's one perspective. Mayweather—who went 50-0 in his career and held WBA, WBC, IBO, IBA, IBF and The Ring titles in various weight classes—is offering another.

"We gotta clean the sport of boxing up," he said. "This don't look good."