Something that bothers me comes out often when people are arguing over questions like "Should we get rid of a belt or two?" "Should we have less weight classes?" "The UFC model would be good or bad for boxing?". That argument is one that begins and ends at "The fighters deserve more money". Applied to the above it may go: less weight classes or belts = less champs and less money going to those who would be that champ. This is fans taking the fighter's interest upon themself.

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There are three main reasons why I don't like this. First of all, the other two parties already look out for their own interests. That is, the promoters and the boxers. When promoters and boxers interests collide with ours, are they going to drop PPV prices or fight less cherry picks or whatever? No. They look out for themselves, as they should. Boxers are adults, they have agency and they use it. They don't need us wanting them to have higher purses, they just need enough of us to want to watch them fight.

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Second, fans interest is important and drives the sport of boxing. Fans want exciting fights and less politics. Fan interest does lend itself to the boxers and promoters, it just doesn't always lend itself to the INDIVIDUAL boxer's immediate interest at the time. Yes, we want fighter x not to be able to marinate certain fights or prolong their 0 loss, and boxer x might make less money. But the more fan interest there is, the more money goes into the sport and overall, the more boxers will be paid.

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And lastly, I don't feel that the top fighters making even more money should be my concern, they already make a lot. Almost every time the argument comes up that we should do x, y, or z because the fighter would make less money we are talking about the champs or big names. Mad respect that they get in the ring, but millions of dollars or even hundreds of thousands a fight already seems sufficient. Its incredibly hard to be a champion. But life is hard in general. How many of us have health problems, or lost a loved one, or have an awful boss or can barely afford rent? Life is hard for so many people, so does it really make sense to want the top boxers to make double or whatever amount more because they work hard? No, I want them to make more because more fans are interested in the sport and watching. That's actually a big difference.

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And anyway, the champs and big names are small minority of boxers. If I think there should be 1 less belt in each weight class, sure that's up to 17 champs suddenly gone but that's still only 17 out of thousands of boxers around the world. The vast majority of boxers aren't going to benefit because of there being one extra belt. So yeah, I'm not saying we need to be anti-fighter, like we could say the UFC is, but I do think fans need to consider their own interests chiefly and not the boxers.