Is the WBC Diamond championship necessary?

WBC President Jose Sulaiman is instituting a brand new belt in his organization, which is going to be called the WBC Diamond belt. The new belt is being implemented with intentions of add more marketability and recognition to the bouts taking place between fighters who are competing at catch weights.

For example, former welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr and current lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez will be meeting on September 19 at a catch weight somewhere between 140lbs and 147lbs [the official weight still has yet to be disclosed]. WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto will face super lightweight champion and pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao on November 14 at a catch weight of 145lbs. Both fights feature the sport's currently active highest grossing super stars, but there is no world title being contested in either one of those bouts.

According to Sulaiman, the belt will revitalize modern boxing by adding greater appeal to the non-title catch weight bouts which he claims have not been a complete success. Should the winners of the Mayweather vs. Marquez and Cotto vs. Pacquiao fight meet each other next year, particularly if that fight is between Mayweather and Pacquiao, a Diamond Belt will not be necessary to market or promote such an extravegent event.

Casual sports fans outside of the boxing community are well acquainted with Mayweather and Pacquiao and they realize that a fight between the two champions is the biggest fight that can be made in boxing. In the middle of a free-falling economic recession, without the presence of a title belt, Pacquiao and Oscar De la hoya, fighting in a non-title fight at welterweight, showed the world the PPV numbers as well as the live gate that they were able to generate in their showdown on December 6.

One would argue that fighters will still have to pay a sanctioning fee to fight for the Diamond Championship, which translates to more money for the WBC, but not necessarily money that the fighters want debited from their purses. Should a Diamond belt champion accept a fight in a traditional eight weight division, then that belt will not even be necessary and will not even require a sanctioning fee to be paid to the WBC.

While the 18 Karat Gold Mold, Emeralds, Diamonds, and Italian Ferreri leather make for an exquisite eye catching championship title belt, it remains questions whether or not it is needed a remedy to improve the image of the sweet science and add marketability to the average occasional catch weight boxing match.