Earlier today Kid Nate posted an interesting juxtaposition of ideas on the current need (or lack thereof) for an MMA sanctioning body.  Fightlinker responded to Dave Meltzer calling for said sanctioning body by pointing out the mess that boxing has found itself in.

Frequent contributer to the site Robnashville pointed out what a lot of people do when he said:

There is a very big difference between the MMA promotions and the boxing alphabet "sanctioning bodies" and it is very simple.  It all comes down to placement of power.

As Bob Verdi put it "Boxing is a rather amorphous body, though recognizable because it is headless."

In boxing the money is controlled by promoters, then the alphabets.  Organizations line the WBA/WBC/IBF all exist to gather money off of fees by "sanctioning fights."  What happens is an endless circle of corruption and basically a fancy money laundering scheme.  It is pretty much just considered common practice that a promoter get his guys ranked highly by the commissions by underhanded business tactics.  So a promoter uses influence to get his fighter ranked highly by an organization.  That organization can then declare him a "mandatory challenger" for the championship.  This means that the champion now must defend his title against that mandatory challenger in the next fight (or sometimes within a set amount of time) or risk being stripped of the title.  This is how we often end up not seeing the true top boxers face off but instead taking on manditory challengers with no track record justifying their position in the rankings.

Now the champion and his promoter have to make a deal to fight the mandatory because, hey...let's face it, championship fights draw more interest and money than non-title bouts.  The commission now gets to take a fee from each fighter just so that the fight can be "for the title."

Commissions have little to no interest in putting together the best matchups but rather just satisfying the crazy whims of the Don Kings and Bob Arums of the world.

Where things get even weirder is that these commissions pull corrupt moves that go against their own initial corrupt plans.

See Carlos Manuel Baldomir upsetting Zab Judah for the IBF, WBA and WBC world titles in 2006.  Baldomir chose not to pay the sanctioning fees of the WBA and IBF.  So what did the IBF do?  Decided that Zab Judah should remain IBF champion...even after losing.  What about the WBA?  They decided to put their title on Luiz Collazo, not even making him fight.  The WBC had declared Baldomir the mandatory challenger, which was likely the reason why he chose to pay their sanctioning fees.  The sheer amount of sanctioning fees that have to be paid in situations like this serve as a punishment to actually try to clean up the convoluted title picture.  Judah came in as champion of three different bodies, Baldomir defeated him and we were left with three different men holding titles.

Now in MMA you have power (and money) controlled by independent organizations.  The focus of a promotion like the UFC is to make the most money possible.  And while this does at times mean that fighter purses seem disproportionately small, it also means that fans are generally treated to the fights they most want to see.  Sure cross-promotional dream matches remain in the minds of fans rather than in the cage/ring/YAMMA thingy but when a promotion can do a fight that is both good for the fans, and good for their wallets it is likely going to happen.

A lot of people clamor for an "Ali Act" in MMA.  But the point of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was to provide guidelines for boxing as it had no league or central rule-making body.  MMA has several leagues, each providing their own rules (within the guidelines of state athletic commissions).  An "Ali Act," at least the exact point of the act, doesn't work for MMA.  I don't disagree with the need for slightly more oversight into the contracts fighters sign, but generally I think the current landscape of MMA is a lot better than people credit it as being.  This is especially true when compared to boxing.  When a fighter is a free agent he is able to seek out the best deal from a large group of organizations.  He is not forced to pay fees to compete in these organizations should his ultimate goal be to be champion.  A fighter in MMA has options galore in a sport where promotions want to put on the best and most compelling matches possible.

While in boxing...well I'll leave you with another Bob Verdi quote that is all too often true:

"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."