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Usyk, Crawford: The rise of boxing's obsession with undisputed champions... and is it good or bad?
Terence Crawford made history in September by becoming the first man to conquer three separate weight classes and rule as undisputed champion.
The man he vanquished, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, had only reunified the division in May to become a two-time undisputed champion, a feat matched by Oleksandr Usyk in July when he defeated Daniel Dubois to reintegrate the IBF strap to his collection of belts.
Fighters are no longer content to become world champions - as soon as they get their first belts, they speak of collecting more. This marks a distinct change from the start of the 21st century, where divisions were split and champions avoided.
What exactly has led to boxing’s obsession with undisputed status - and is it a good thing?Switch in mentality from 2000s to 2010s
Floyd Mayweather started a separate trend that influenced numerous boxers from the early 2000s onwards - maintaining an unbeaten record. As long as a fighter retained their ‘0’, they held bragging rights and if they also had a world title, a claim to being the best in their respective division.
This led to a lot of champions avoiding each other until the financial numbers made sense. Despite winning belts at five separate weights, it was not until Mayweather’s 45th fight that he unified with another champion recognised by the governing bodies, defeating Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at super welterweight.
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Instead, Mayweather would flitter between weights, sometimes holding belts in separate divisions.
As one of the leading lights of his era, other fighters followed in Mayweather’s footsteps. But now simply being undefeated is not enough. Boxers are expected to prove they are the best of the best, with fans demanding champion vs champion bouts.
Boxing’s kingmaker driving force behind undisputed champions
Turki Alalshikh’s involvement in boxing has been sizeable, so it is no surprise that the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority can be seen as responsible for the rise in undisputed champions.
Although sometimes he can be accused of playing favourites, Alalshikh frequently holds the desire of seeing the best face the best. It is what led to the heavyweight division being fully united for the first time in 24 years when Usyk faced Tyson Fury, while Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol’s mega-fights led to an undisputed champion at 175lbs.
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Ultimately, one man desiring something is not enough for it to happen - it is the financial backing behind Alalshikh that convinces fighters to put their belts on the line. Canny boxers have noted that by forming a relationship with Alalshikh they can further their own goals. Unified middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly has clear ambitions of adding the remaining two belts at 160lbs to his collection, but has found further unification bouts hard to come by.
His petitioning of Alalshikh appears to have finally borne fruit, as a meeting with WBA champion Erislandy Lara seems set to be confirmed on a Riyadh Season card.
Whereas before a champion might be better off financially simply defending his belt, there is now plenty of money in facing other title holders.
The financial pull of being an undisputed champion
One man who has understood the marketing pull of being an undisputed champion is Canelo Alvarez. A pay-per-view star long before he collected all four belts at super middleweight, Canelo has maximised his earning potential.
The first time he put all four titles on the line after completely unifying the super middleweight division was against long-time rival Gennady Golovkin.
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Canelo had already shared the ring twice with the Kazakh legend, drawing the first meeting and winning the second. Both were controversial decisions as some fans felt that ‘Triple G’ deserved wins in both fights. That controversy alone could have sold the third installment, but many felt that the five years that had passed since their last fight left Golovkin past his peak.
But with undisputed status on the line, there was additional intrigue to attract spectators.
Heavyweight division finally reuniting sets a tone
Unification at heavyweight has always been a fairly big deal, with aficionados keen to know who is the main man in boxing’s most glamorous division. The lineal belt, the man who beat the man, is discussed almost exclusively about the heavyweight division, indicating that fight fans care about who rules at the top of weight classes.Big names such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis managed to pick up all the belts during the three-belt era, but when boxing organisations and fans recognised the WBO in 2007, it took the arrival of Usyk at heavyweight to reunify the division.
His countrymen Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko are partly to blame. The Ukrainian brothers promised their mother that they would never fight each other, allowing Wladimir and Vitali to carve out separate kingdoms in the heavyweight landscape.
To his credit, Wladimir would pick up the lionshare of titles, eventually reigning as the WBA, WBO, and IBF champion. Vitali would retire as the WBC champion having held that title for eight years. But that was eight years where the WBC champion would not unify, halting any hopes of an undisputed champion.
Even after the Klitschko brothers stepped aside, fracturing the belts, the path to complete unification was difficult. Before Wladimir lost his belts to Tyson Fury and then Anthony Joshua, Vitali’s WBC championship had ended up in the hands of Deontay Wilder, who was happy to keep his strap in the United States. An undisputed bout with Fury was teased in 2015 and 2016, only for the Brit to step back from boxing.
Wilder continued to box smaller names until Fury returned to world title contention, the ‘Gypsy King’ taking the belt back to Britain in 2020. A few years later, the money of Alalshikh would convince Fury and Usyk to finally see all four heavyweight titles on the line for the first time.
The side effects of champions chasing undisputed status
But is the increased focus on undisputed champions healthy for the eco-system of the sport?
Fighters that become focused on uniting their respective division might find themselves on pause, waiting for dates to align. The aforementioned Alimkhanuly is a strong example - after taking the IBF middleweight strap off Vincenzo Gualtieri in 2023, he has called out his fellow champions. Fast forward two years and he is still waiting for another unification bout, highlighting how it takes two to tango.
Champions can hide behind mandatory defences thanks to sanctioning bodies excluding other organisation’s belt holders from their own rankings. That leaves entertaining fighters either not fighting, or taking on sub-par opponents. This has a further knock-on effect, as champions may start to cause a backlog for up-and-coming contenders. As a consequence, this leaves divisions without big fights and effectively frozen - the cruiserweights being a prime example.
It is the same story when an undisputed champion reigns - with the mandatory challengers queuing up for their shot. The sanctioning bodies do at least agree a set order, but that is not enough to keep a division moving, with Joseph Parker left waiting to face Usyk.
Should boxing be obsessed with undisputed status?
Ultimately, the heightened importance of undisputed status should be viewed positively. The merits of multiple world champions per division allow different fighters to prove their quality. But rather than merely debate who is better, we get to see it proven inside the ring more often.
The politics of the sport will always hold up and frustrate potential bouts. Fighters have to want to fight, and if the allure of being able to definitively say you are the best is not enough encouragement, that says something about the boxer involved. The quality of divisions is cyclical, sometimes making it easier for one man to take control of all four belts. Other times we see truly great fighters separate themselves from their talented contemporaries.
Whilst boxers dropping one belt before returning to win it back can detract from the glamour of being undisputed, we should appreciate that fighters are more keen than ever to prove they truly are the best of the best.
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