misterpunch wrote:why would that happen? very strange - oops Zaragoza is not my man...someone else postDatsue wrote:
Ambers is a fantastic win, but the one for the featherweight title over Armstrong is hard to beat. For some reason I've got a feeling that was only for like three states'-worth of a world title, but can't be bothered to look it up.
Er. Daniel Zaragoza.
I think it's 'cos, despite what our fathers told us, it was actually common that a lot of titles back then weren't actually "undisputed". Most were, but some splintered like motherfuckers & it's basically been hushed up. Yet the same people who are happy not noting that technically Lee Savold was recognised by someone as heavyweight champion will often be the first to throw up their hands & go "Eeewwwww modern boxing fractured titles waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
When Freddie Mills KO'd Len Harvey, for instance, for the British & Commonwealth light-heavy titles, Harvey apparently had some bullshit claim for the "world" title, but after winning Mills never mentioned it (probably felt embarrassed). Fred Apostoli & Freddie Steele were both middleweight champion back in the 1930s, & in fact the middleweight championship was split for ten years from 1930 to 1940.
Ezzard Charles wasn't undisputed champion until he KO'd the comebacking Joe Louis.
Old-timers & boxing "historians" just gloss over it, though, in an attempt to bolster the prelapsarian Golden Age of boxing myth & make them feel better about wringing their hands over the state of boxing today.
Mostly, they just ignore fractured titles before about 1960; ages ago they got lucky & hit upon the idea of "lineal" championships as being the time-hallowed thing to follow, but they wouldn't have had to dream that up if boxing wasn't brimming with bullshit & had been since it was invented.
PS: I've got no idea why the title was fractured at the point of the Arizmendi vs Armstrong fight, but now I've pulled my finger out my arse & checked Boxrec confirms that in fact it was. As to the specific bullshit political manipulations that led to that state of affairs... Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.