When Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao stood on the stage to advertise their May 2 fight last week it was the IBO belt they had a mock tug of war over.
Hatton, who also holds the Ring Magazine 140lbs belt - which was not on display - has been fulsome in his praise of the IBO since they awarded him their belt after his victory over Juan Urango.
This obviously smacks of expediency as his fights with Jose Luis Castillo and Juan Lazcano were not recognised by any other governing body, but his point about the computerised ranking which unlike the other four major governing bodies includes other champions has some merit.
They first gained major publicity by awarding their title to the winner of the fight between the world's best two light heavyweights Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver, when other governing bodies did not recognise the fight.
With the Ring Belt also in his position Hatton did not have to act in this manner. Few would doubt Joe Calzaghe's claim to be a two-weight champion despite the fact that it was only the Ring Magazine he held at light heavyweight.
Its clout was not helped by the players in the Juan Diaz-Juan Manuel Marquez not deciding to contest the IBO lightweight title the Baby Bull won with his victory over Michael Katsidis the previous November.
Their cause is also not aided by the fact that they only have eight champions out of the 17 weight divisions and they may eventually go the same way as the IBA and WBF whose belts Roy Jones Jr was happy to hold when he was the pound-for-pound king.
Currently, Wladimir Klitschko proudly displays the IBO belt, as does Chad Dawson and another borderline pound-for-pound top ten candidate, flyweight king Nonito Donaire.
If Pacquiao beats Hatton, their elite talent would overshadow the other governing bodies, and more boxers may feel more happy about fighting for the belt Pacman holds. Even more so if the third Pacquiao-Marquez fight is also fought for this title.
The introduction of the WBC in 1963 began the situation we see now. Even though the ridiculousness of it was soon noticeable when the WBA recognised Ernie Terrell as their heavyweight champion in 1965.
Then Larry Holmes' embrace of the IBF strap in the early 1980s, plus their temporary delay in following the WBC and WBA in reducing championship contests to 12 rounds soon made people think in terms of three governing bodies.
Later, though it took America longer to respect the WBO title - which Britain did due to the Nigel Benn-Chris Eubank-Michael Watson rivalry - when Oscar De La Hoya kept the belt at the expense of others he collected in the mid-1990s they begrudgingly accepted it.
This was born out of obvious self-interest on the Golden Boy's part as his only title at super featherweight was a WBO strap.
The rise of the organisation means no one really disputes his claim to be a six-weight world champion whereas Tommy Hearns, whose only title at super-middleweight (due to his draw with Sugar Ray Leonard) was with the WBO, was rated by most as a four-weight champion twenty years ago.
Bizarrely if the IBO does become rated as a bona fide championship, then Hearns may be seen in generations to come as a six-weight champion due to his dour victory over Nate Miller on the Naseem Hamed-Paul Ingle undercard in 1999 I was unfortunate enough to witness.
Although many would like to believe the increase in titles will make them all irrelevant, this seems unlikely to be the case as shown by Vitali Klitschko's acquiescence in defending his WBC crown when he would have rather not faced Juan Carlos Gomez and Bernard Hopkins' quest to add a cruiserweight title to his collection.
Perhaps instead what has happened is an end to historical context in modern boxing.
One of the first facts I knew about boxing growing up was that Muhammad Ali was the only three-time heavyweight champion. Now he shares this with John Ruiz! (as well as Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, who has won four, and Michael Moorer if you count his brief 'Pre-Oscar' WBO reign).
We should perhaps cut boxing into the pre-1963 era, the next neatly comes 25 years later when Sugar Ray Leonard contesting the WBC super middleweight and light heavyweight titles in the same fight against Donnie Lalonde and the WBO began recognising Francisco Damiani as their heavyweight champion.
From this point onwards fighters no longer had to be elite to win a world title and looking purely at the chronology of champions gives little indication of who the best fighters at anytime were.
The situation we are currently in does no favours to the sport and the addition of a fifth generally recognised governing body is not one any supporters of the sport would have wanted, but it may be one they will have to come to accept.