It began with rumors Al Haymon would bring Premier Boxing Champions belts into combat sports and then continued with the UFC’s ‘Baddest MF Belt’ recently.
Now, the influx of new championships to dilute both codes further is on the horizon.
The scenario worsened on Friday when three new title belts got bandied around, one in boxing and two in MMA.
For boxing, newly-formed streaming service Triller is developing its line of titles. They confirmed this when announcing the Evander Holyfield vs. Kevin McBride shocker for the Teofimo Lopez bill.
Triller said: “Fight Club has created and named this match the Legends Title Fight. It will be delivering the winner the Triller Fight Club Legends Champion Gold Belt, the first of Fight Club’s championship belts,” they confirmed.
That final phase of the sentence indicates that Triller plans more belts in its coming events.
As for the UFC, Conor McGregor wants to bring unrecognized straps into his trilogy battle with Dustin Poirier.
Similar to the BMF belt won by Jorge Masvidal, McGregor has intentions of having two trinkets up for grabs in Las Vegas on July 10th.
“Let’s do two belts actually, @ufc. “Champ Champ” always does two. We’ve got “The McGregor Belt” currently in creation, and now we’ve got the all-new “RMF” belt.
“The Richest MF Belt.” This way, we can put both the rubies and the emeralds to good use.”
McGregor’s idea comes just a short time after his fight with Poirier sold out the T-Mobile Arena in seconds this week.
The Irishman confirmed the news to his fans.
“Wow! I just beat this time in selling out the T-mobile Arena! Twenty thousand eight hundred fans jam-packed! Sold out in seconds!
“On the 10th anniversary of my fastest one-punch KO in professional Mixed Martial Arts!
“Still One of the fastest in Professional Mixed Martial Arts history,” added “The Notorious” one.
COMBAT SPORTS TITLES
If UFC can do it and Triller intends to do it, what will happen when boxing companies decide to ditch the usual belts in favor of their own.
The three major sanctioning bodies will face serious problems verifying their titles.
As new fans come into combat sports, how will they know what belt is legit and what belt isn’t?
Furthermore, a few years down the line could become a delicate situation if this new trend continues.
Phil Jay is the Editor of WBN. An Auxiliary member of the Boxing Writers Association of America since 2018. And a member of the Sports Journalists’ Association. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
