+811

Well, I've noticed the WBA being dicks again. Clocked last week that whilst Amir Khan challenges Andriy Kotelnik for his WBA Light-Welterweight title here in London, just a few hours later, Victor Ortiz & Marcos Maidana fight for the WBA interim Light-Welterweight title. Errr... so wait they fight for the 'interim' title just after the proper title is contested?? Could these belts get any more ridiculous? How is Maidana getting another shot just a few months after his last one? Why is Dimitriy Salita (who personally I think is rubbish & was lucky to get a decision in his fight on the Calzaghe-Jones undercard) getting shafted when he got himself into the mandatory position? If Golden Boy want to get Ortiz a shot, why not try get him a fight with Bradley? Bradley deserves a payday & an Ortiz fight would provide that. The WBA gets worse & worse for its sheer level of corruption & incompetence, and letting Golden Boy pick its own 'title' shots just undermines the sport. In addition, why not wait & see if Khan wins, then an Ortiz-Khan fight would be HUGE, not NOW, but in about a year or two. Can a boxing month not go by without the WBA embarassing itself & our sport

+706

Well, can I add #287? Somebody wrote into Boxing News magazine because they had heard about the possibility of Bernard Dunne fighting Juanma in a unification fight. If that happened, technically the winner would be 'Super' Champion, but they already have a Super Champion at that weightclass in Caballero who has already unified. So, if there are two Super Champions, the 2nd Super Champion is named 'Unified Champion'. Boxing News clarified this with the WBA. Also, they have an interim champion at Super-Bantam too. So they have 3 Champions in one weightclass. Go figure.

Dunne will steer well clear of Juanma

The WBA would gladly support 2 supper champions belt, 2 official champions and 3-4 "prospect" belts as long as everybody pay their sanction fees. I am sure they think it would be a good idea and would stir up some "competition" in boxing.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

That's the way it is, not the way it ends

JazMerkin you right. The WBA is an absolutely worthless title. How about the fact that they have had 2 heavyweight champions for the past year, and the fact that John Ruiz was inexplicably named the mandatory challenger for Valuev.

WTF WBA.

From Dan Rafael today at: ESPN.COM/Boxing


WBA has made a mockery of heavyweight title



Can the Nikolai Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev heavyweight title saga get any worse? Well, of course it can. This is the WBA we're talking about.
Besides the back-and-forth press releases from each camp blaming the other side for the cancellation of last week's title rematch, and the inevitable lawsuits that will follow, how about this to depress you even more: If the WBA strips Chagaev of his laughable "champion in recess" title, which it should considering he tests positive for hepatitis B about every other day, like he did last week the day before his rematch with Valuev, guess who probably will get the next mandatory shot at Valuev?


It hurts to even write this, but, yes, it's John Ruiz, our old hug-loving friend who must have some compromising photos of WBA officials with the special treatment the organization has given him for more than a decade.
In the latest of the many Ruiz press release that infect my in-box on a regular basis, I found this quote from him extraordinary:
"The WBA has to stand by its rules and order a purse bid for Valuev to fight me for the WBA heavyweight title and strip Chagaev. This is the third time he hasn't been able to fight for one reason or another. In baseball he'd be out. How many chances is the WBA going to give this guy?"
How many chances is the WBA going to give Chagaev? Excuse me? What about Ruiz? In Ruiz's past 18 fights since September 1998, 16 of them have involved the WBA, be it in world title fights, eliminators or regional title fights. And even though Ruiz lost five of them (it really should be six losses, but the result of his title bout with James Toney became a no contest when Toney tested positive for steroids after the fight) and drew in another, the WBA stupidly kept Ruiz propped up high enough in its horrendous rankings to be in position to get another title opportunity he didn't deserve.


Forget about Chagaev. How many chances should Ruiz, who is 2-3 with that no contest in his last six fights, get? Now, he's demanding an immediate purse bid for a mandatory against Valuev, who beat him last summer. Oh, boy. The world is waiting for that one isn't it? And it just might get it because of a WBA ruling in February that said of the champion in recess: "If Chagaev should incur another injury or other impediment that would prevent him from defending against the champion, he will vacate whatever title he may hold and will be correspondingly lowered in his ranking."


That would open the door for Ruiz, whose fights stink so bad he's all but been banned by HBO and Showtime. It's impossible to take the WBA seriously anymore between the toxic disaster its heavyweight title has become and the avalanche of silly interim champions, regular champions, super champions and champions in recess it names seemingly almost every day. The next nail in the coffin is when it mandates Ruiz to fight for its heavyweight title yet again, which you know is coming. Isn't enough enough already?


By the way, it doesn't get better after that. The next guy in line for a shot? The not-so-legendary Kali Meehan, who has zero merit as a title challenger. Since the day Lennox Lewis discarded the WBA heavyweight title like the piece of garbage it has become so he wouldn't be forced into a fight with Ruiz, who was totally undeserving at the time, it has been an utter mess. The lone exception was when then-pound-for-pound king and light heavyweight champion Roy Jones moved up in weight and whipped Ruiz to win the title before quickly giving it up.


After Jones vacated guess who got to fight for it? Ruiz, coming off that lopsided defeat, of course.
What did you expect?

+707

Good post Lance. I always liked that Dan said it like it is.

__________________
I have to go with the original Sugar as the best, Sugar Ray Robinson.

As far as the WBA are concerned it's good business. They get two sanctioning fees for the 140 pound title on the same weekend.