Who is the welterweight champion now?

So has boxing changed hat in very few divisions we can have a clear definition of world champion. Belts are one thing, lineal title is another, publicity third. It is now very unclear how a guy can win a championship and how it is lost.

IMO this among the biggest questions in boxing as a sport so I would like to hear your takes how you see it. I took welterweight for an example since it is probably among the more familiar ones.

Personally I could see four different takes.

1. Mayweather. He was the clear champion before he retired, being both the lineal champion and the biggest name. He never lost his title and since nobody took over while he was gone. Mayweather is he champ.

2. Mosley. Mayweather gave up his title when he announced his retirement. Margarito and Cotto fought for he near-universally recognized top spot of the, won by Margarito. Since Mosley beat him, he holds the title now.

3. Pacquiao. Mayweather gave up his title and nobody has clearly taken the crown since. Pac, being the biggest name and with convincing vicories over the top challengers has now the most legitimate demand on the crown.

4. There is no champion in the division and nobody has an edge. It can only be solved if winner of PBF-Mosley faces Pac.


You can answer based on who you 'feel' is the champion or who it should logically be to you.

Personally for some reason I vie Floyd as the champ, although in reality I don't think he or anyone else can be called that right now

 

I reckon it'll come down to the blood sampling needle in the end. The needle will decide.

 

I don't like the idea of a champion in boxing, who conserve his status untill he loses even if he fights millions of bums in a row ( kind of like Vitaly is doing ). To me, in each division, there's the man to beat. At ww, it's very tough to get a clear cut choice, but if you'd put a gun to my head, I'd say Pac is.

 

So who is the man to beat in the HW division.

Why, Vitali of course.

 

Hopkins fought a record amount of mandatories in a row, barely knocked anybody out, and constantly and deliberately slows the action down to a hault via illegal means.............everything he did,..however,.. was glorified as 'legendary' .. ...and he frequents top 20 p4p greatest of all time lists...

What the Klitschko's should do I guess,.. is drag up cruiserweight and lightheavyweight belt holders, to enhance thier 'p4p' legacy,.. however, I think both you and I know,.. the inevitable outrage that's going to bring,.. so they're damned if they do, and they're damned if they dont .....aren't they?..

 

After Floyd Retired (& Presumably VACATED his Throne), Cotto & Margarito Fought for the Lineal "Title"...Margarito Won, then Got WAXED by Sugar Shane Mosley...

Though Mosley HAS NOT Retired, Ring Magazine & the Rest of the Boxing World ALL Got Caught Up in the Latest Phenomenon Known as PAC SAC Swinging, & Bumped Manny AHEAD of Sugar Shane in their Rankings...

LOGICALLY, Sugar Shane HAS to B Regarded as "THE Welterweight Champion of the World", Even though the POPULAR Choice is Manny Pac...



REED:kidcool:

 

I'm a Manny fan but yea Shane is the closest thing to the "true" Welterweight champion

 

Definatly!!!

 

If I were putting together a list with one champion at each weight, welterweight would be one of the easiest slots to fill with Shane's name.

 

Not sure about that. IMHO it is very questionable if Margarito vs Cotto was the legitimate championship fight. Most seem to share the view though

 

Shane Mosley because he beat the man who beat the man...Floyd, even though undefeated, he vacated the title and now is just an ex-champion whether him or his nuthuggers like it or not and should not be in this poll. Where is Berto btw?

 

It's vacant until the Mayweather/Pacquiao/Mosley argument is resolved....

 

Like i said..there's no champion....but all of those fuckers on this site who SWEAR by linear titles..even going so far as to say that Shannon Briggs was the linear/TRUE Champion when he "beat" George Foreman (Ignoring Tyson, Holyfield etc)..should all be picking Mayweather based upon the same criteria.

 

So, it appears, that the Welter Champ is not the Welter Champ...oh what a tangled web we weave when we act the bollox with catch-a-weight....

 

I don't get how this is even a question. There are rules to dictate these things and going by those rules Shane is the champion. Floyd dumped his title and retired. In a few weeks he'll get another shot at regaining his championship and if he wins then he'll be the legitimate champ. Sorry but right now that man is Mosley like it or not.

Now if you want to talk about who is the best in the division or p4p, that is a debatable arguable issue. The welterweight champion of the world however, is not.

 

Look at this!!! We dont even know who the Welter Champ is!!! Welterweight is messed up!! HBO!! Don't televise this shit!!!

 

Mayweather was the champ. The problem is he retired. Floyd wasn't stripped of anything.

Unless you want to be like always always wise WBC and give him "Emeritus" status.

 

Come the fuck on.

Danny Williams 32-3 sort of bum, sort of not, but we can count him. But after that...
Samuel Peter 30-1
JC Gomez 44-1
Chris Arreola 27-0
Kevin Johnson 22-0-1

 

funny that Floyd has ZERO votes...considering so many here SWEAR by linear titles.

Floyd had beaten the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat the man....and until Floyd is beaten, he's the linear champion.

Pacquiao has beaten Cotto and now Clottey..but he's no champion until he beats Floyd, Berto or Shane.

Shane has beaten Margarito...but he hasn't beaten Berto or Floyd or Pac.

Therefore..NO ONE is champion until this three way is resolved (personally..until Berto is resolved too)

 

Was

 

TELL HIM MIKE!!! TELL HIM!!!:cheer::cheer:

 

For me it is Pacquiao.

He beat Cotto who was, IMHO, 'the' champion prior to that fight. Floyd vacated when he retired and the title passed to the winner of Cotto-Mosely. Cotto won that fight and seemed to lose his crown to Margacheato, who then lost to Mosely.

However, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that Cotto was beaten by a man who was loading his gloves with plaster, which casts serious doubt upon the validity of that, and indeed any, Margacheato win. IMHO the Cotto-Margacheato fight should be expunged from the records and the titleholder reverted back to the winner of that Cotto-Mosely bout.

Pacquiao then won the title by beating Cotto.

MTF

 

Nah...your logic is flawed.

Margarito won the fight...unfair or not.

Tyson had Douglas on the canvas for 17 seconds, Buster got up at the refs count of 9.9 secs and "Doc Oc" wasn't following or trying to pick up the count from the time keeper...yet no one here is going to say that Buster Douglas wasn't the true champ at the time.

The result is the result.

Pacquiao, therefore, has no claim at the moment.

If anything Mosley does...but as I said...the title is vacant until the conclusion of the May-Mos-Pac business...

 

What sort of a division is it when we don't even know who the champ is?

 

Sort of like any division in boxing these days.

 

Wait...are there 4 people that you and I think are the Champ in the HW division, or only 2?

 

Sorry, but the comparison you make is flawed here.

There is no referee taking up a long count or anything here. Cotto was SMASHED into a bloody pulp by a man who was later found to be using plaster wraps. There are extremely pressing and legitimate questions marks over the the validity of that result.

MTF

 

Not only that, but Margarito, sans wraps, was then himself smashed into a bloody pulp by a man who had lost handily to Cotto himself.

The candle burns from both ends on this one.

 

Indeed.

If we accept that Margacheato cheated in the Cotto fight, and it is beyond all reasonable assuption IMHO that he would have done, seeing as Cotto was undefeated and considered a far greater threat at the time than Mosely, who was considered by many as being borderline shot, then you have to expunge that Cotto result.

In which case, the title returned to Cotto, who has beaten Mosely in their head-to-head 'title' bout.

MTF

 

there's absolutely no case for PBF. so it's between Mosley and Pacquiao. and since Margarito's win over Cotto is tainted, Mosley's win over Margarito is somewhat tainted as well. therefore: Pacquiao's KO of Cotto, along with his domination of Clottey, make him number one at 147, if not champion.