Jessie Bam Rodriguez is not just some random boxer either, he is one of the best boxers on Earth in any weight class.
His recent knockout victory inside the distance propelled him up the pound for pound rankings in boxing for many.
Now, he has even now given up his Ring Magayine belt at 115 pounds.
Showing he did not really care about it all.
Not only now are the old 4 boxing sanctioning bodies and belt companies done in boxing, the prestige that even used to be there with the Ring Magazine belt, is in the trash as well.
If the Ring’s own champion who is one of the best boxers in the entire sport has so easily vacated their belt, the writing is on the wall as a whole for the whole concepts of belts being very important in professional boxing anymore.
This comes at a time as well where new and old organizations in boxing continue to bring out their own new belts as well to add futher chaos to the mix for new preospective spectators of the sport and even for old reliable consumers of boxing as well.
Simply put, there are too many belts now and the days of just one belt per world champion per each weight class is the best way to go.
But the way things are going that is not achievable with all the new belts emerging in professional boxing and people who are tuning into the sport in their masses again are doing so for the great fights.
Not because of what belts they are fighting for.
Pound for pound has never been more important consequently than it has become as it is now because of all this.
People want to see the best boxers fight one another in the best match ups and are not pushed on what weights they happen at or for what title.
If the bout is compelling enough slight catchweights can even be made which attracts more new spectators to the sport.
The proof is there.
Boxing is returning to the masses all the time this year due to the quality of the work in boxing — which of course is the fights themselves.
Now, there has been a little poor matchmaking recently strangely (Usyk vs Rico comes to mind) — but overall the matchmaking is far better than where it was in professional boxing than say — ten years ago.
This move from Bam is just the latest move against the old belt companies (remember they are just private companies at the end of the day, those old belt organizations are not government regulated or anything like that, nor are they official government bodies) — as other champions continue to dump also the old 4 sanctioning body belts and two of those belt companies are in such distress they are even joining forces to do events together later this year.
That says it all.
The old boxing belts and their associated companies just are not important anymore.
Jessie Bam Rodriguez is just the latest to give them a kick in the teeth.
He looks to be going after a possible big fight with Naoya Inoue of Japan next in a big pound for pound clash in the sport and this points to the reason why he threw the belt above in the bin in the first place to us.
As to make the best fights for the boxers, spectators and for the continued growth of the sport, for the biggest pay days for the fighters as well, this is what will often have to be done now.
It is easy to do as well.
What is more, the fighters do not have to pay the sanctioning fees anymore either in their fights anymore for the old belts doing things this way.
So the fighters make even more money as well.
So it is better for everyone and makes more logical sense doing things this way, which, by the way, fighters are doing more with vacating these belts with their actions of doing so anyway.
This is now a matter of fact and is happening more and more day after day and week after week in the sport. The proof is there again and again.
Jaron Ennis gave up belts not long ago, Shakur Stevenson told the belt companies where to go, Terence Crawford stuck it to them after the Canelo fight, Claressa Shields wanted to give up a heavyweight title not long ago, Junto Nakatani vacated a belt not long ago then he got a mega fight with Naoye Inoue afterwards as well (more proof that this gets boxers and the sport the big fights they want right away), Canelo was looking to vacate a belt not long ago, Usyk threw a belt in the trash not to fight Fabio Wardley not long ago.
Jessie Bam Rodriguez giving the Ring Magazine belt the boot is only the latest middle finger salute to the old belt sanctioning bodies.
It will not be the last, rest assured.
The above names are leading champions and pound for pound stars in the sport as well transparently leading the way in recent times with this growing trend happening all the time now — the transparent proof and hard evidence is all there above and keeps growing.
Boxers are voting with their wallets and are not paying the sanctioning fees anymore and are getting rewards with bigger fights, better fights for the sport and not having to pay the sanctioning fees.
Everyone wins.
Boxing wins again.
This is a trend that is only speeding up more and more as people want the best boxing matches.
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