What happened to the WBA

[MistaDibbs]

Super Champions and Interim Champions are just a foolish way for the WBA to keep the championship title in circulation and collect more sanctioning fees. They couldn't settle for collecting a fee from 1 champion per division in a given amount of time (think of how often a 'champion' fights the longer he keeps a belt) so they figured it would be more profitable to be able to sanction 2-3 champions in that same span of time. When Hopkins was fighting every 9-12 months, the WBA had to wait those 9-12 months to get paid. However, make Hopkins the Super Champion and make Masoe the 'plain' WBA champion and you have a bit more action with the belts and a bit more money to collect. I never understood why Hopkins fought Joppy for the WBA title when he had been stripped of it to be a Super Champion and would win just to get stripped again and still be a Super Champion.

[boozeboxer]

except for the Ring, who cares about belts?? Fight for them if they are handy and don't cost too much. Other than that......the people know who the real fighters are. The belts make it impossible to unify anyway....so why would someone waste the time and career trying?? Fight good fights and you will be recognized as the champion. Look at the Rings champions.....while we may agree or disagree to soem extent who the champion should be (esp. for me because of lack of activity) there is little argument that the champions are one of the top 2 guys in the division. This isn't remotely possible with 4 major bullshit belts going around....

[thewhale]

Well it is funny there is so many titles there can by definition only be ONE world champion. So all the titles don´t do it for me.

In Denmark we have had lots of worldchampions in IBO. I guess none of you guys heard of them, but they where herald as champions here because the media bought it also, so I guess it makes sense business wise more profit but also less credibility.

I think I will make my own new federation, based on profit to me.

Get ready for Universe Boxing Federation UBF.

champion: Butterbean

ranking
1. Luke Skywalker
2. Michael Jackson
3. George Bush

help needed for the rest

[Mikkel_K]

And what the hell is up with this hole Super Champion crap?

Bilbo informed me of this a while ago. I think it was when Mundine was champion and Kessler the "super champion", I could be totally off but I think that was the case.

I rue the day when boxing has digressed so far that instead of "unification" fights digress so far from the days of the welterweight and middleweight titles being unified to the day there is a WBA unification bout, to see who is the REAL WBA champion. It's absolutely shameful, can't believe they got away with that.

Actually Mundine is a two-time WBA champ, without ever beeing WBA top guy - he won it fiirst time round, when Ottke held the Super Champion title (!). Funnily enough this was actually the title later won by Kessler (Ottke retiring, Mundine fighting Siaca for the 'real' WBA belt, Kessler defeating Siaca).

Also the WBA have had Super Champions in other divisions for a while now. Collazo for example won his title, while Judah was Super Champion. Worst of all though - Firat Arslan just won the Cruiserweight Interim title, giving him the right to fight Virgin Hill for the WBA title (that he somehow didnt lose to Maske), while Jean Marc Mormeck is WBA super champion. Now that should be enough to turn any casual fan off ever respecting boxing belts...

However, while the belt situation is screwed up, I am not so much against this as most people here - in the end it could make the top end of the rankings much more explicit, obvious and understandable. Mundine is the official #2 WBA SMW, having explicitly won that title (and the status of official mandatory for Kessler) against Soliman. Arslan-Brudov fought for being #3 WBA Cruiserweight, Arslan now being mandatory for #2 Virgin Hill. Whoever wins that fight gains the right to meet #1 Mormeck. Mormeck on the other hand is given a better chance (18 months instead of 12) of defending his other title aganist his mandatory there - thus keeping the belts unified - while also having leeway to pursue a voluntary mandatory or a shot at further unification.

If used and explained right, I actually believe this could be beneficial for boxing - at least it makes it more obvious for the fans who the mandatory is, how he has won that right, and why the champion should actually fight him. Now the things are now that is not always the case... (IBF anyone?)

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

The WBC is probably the most corrupt in its dealings with the minipulation of rankings... Usually has a good Champion though.

The WBA is a pile of Crap from Champion through to the 10th ranked.

The IBF is mixed in regards to its calibre of champion but its probabaly the most frequently vaccated belt and its mandatories are always rubbish.

The WBO is still suffering from lack of prestiege (relatively speaking of course ) but IMO does have alot of credible champions and contenders

The IBO is basically where the WBO was 15 years ago

[Kev]

Actually Mundine is a two-time WBA champ, without ever beeing WBA top guy - he won it fiirst time round, when Ottke held the Super Champion title (!). Funnily enough this was actually the title later won by Kessler (Ottke retiring, Mundine fighting Siaca for the 'real' WBA belt, Kessler defeating Siaca).

Ha is that true! It would make for a great trivia question in the future. Who is only two time world champion never to have been world champion!