OK, MAJOR FRAT WARNINGOK, so out of boredom I am putting together a “heavyweight champions” match madness tournament. I’m going to break down each fight until we have a winner (or until I get bored and go back to lurking in the “post a pic that is never not funny thread.”Just a setup on how this will operate:Only champions who held one of the belts of the major modern sanctioning organizations will be included (WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO). So there will be no Jack Johnson, John L. Sullivan or Jess Willard included.However, all champions who held one of those belts will be in the tournament (so yeah, Bruce Seldon is in).The champions and their rankings will be based on their championship reigns. What that means is that there are some great fighters whose time as heavyweight champions were somewhat underwhelming. As a result, their rankings will reflect that. The rankings are based on number of title defenses and quality of opposition as a heavyweight champion and nature of win as a champion only (so Ken Norton and Roy Jones are ranked somewhat low compared to other fighters, fighters that most experts regard as inferior overall.)We are using modern rules. Three knockdown rule and twelve round fights.Now remember, style makes fights. The Ali-Foreman-Frazier fights are proof of that. So just because I have a guy like Ali seemingly struggling with someone everyone regards as vastly inferior to the Greatest, keep that in mind.And yeah, there will be some upsets along the way.No “regular champions” or “silver champions.” The WBA and WBC have created new championship belts recently. For example, over the last few years Wladimir Klitschko is regarded as the Super Champion while Ruslan Chakaev is regarded as the “regular” world champion. Unless a fighter won the “world” title (which most boxing insiders and fans do not regard the “regular” belt as) then they are not in the tournament.James Toney and Frans Botha are excluded. Although Toney briefly held the WBA heavyweight title in 2005 and Botha briefly held the IBF heavyweight title in 1995, both fighters had their title victories declared a no-contest after both tested positive for a banned substance. Since the WBA and IBF does not recognize the Toney or Botha reign as champions, they are not in the tournament.Primo Carnera is in. He was not technically recognized by the WBA (or NBA as it was called back in 1933) but he was recognized by the NYSAC and boxing as the heavyweight champion. The NBA took no steps to set up a “vacant title” during his reign and subsequently recognized the man who beat him: Max Baer. As a result, I feel the WBA took de facto recognition of his championship and he is in.The tournament has 64 slots, with 67 champions in. So we will see the bottom four fighters compete for the final spot in the tournament.