The Fracturing of the Heavyweight Championship
Wladimir Klitschko's long reign as heavyweight champion maintained a sense of order over the land of boxing's big boys. He accumulated three-fourths of the alphabet titles and made all his mandatory defenses, ensuring that the IBF, WBA and WBO titles remained in one place.
Tyson Fury's win blew that all up.
Fury has little interest in making mandatory defenses against fighters that are largely unknown to the public and present little opportunity to financially cash in on his huge victory.
The IBF has already stripped him of its title for refusing to face mandatory challenger Glazkov and instead pursuing a contractually mandated rematch with Klitschko. Glazkov will face Charles Martin for the vacant title, with their fight heading to a purse bid on December 18.
The winner will hold a belt that's meaningless in the grand scheme of things, which is definitely a good thing.
Glazkov is undefeated on paper, but you could easily argue he deserved losses against Steve Cunningham, Malik Scott and journeyman Derric Rossy.
He's a decent fighter, but nothing overly special, and it's hard to overlook those three questionable wins in big spots.
Martin is an interesting case, mostly because it's difficult to figure out how the heck he was even ranked by the IBF, much less placed in position to fight for a vacant title.
The 29-year-old hasn't beaten a single fighter at, near or even around the top of the division. His biggest win is over 12-loss journeyman Raphael Zumbano Love.
And, yet, one of these men will carry around a belt in a couple of months and claim he's the world champion.
Yikes.