WBA Continues To Hurt Boxing, Makes John "Super Champ"

By Mark Vester

 

The WBA continues to hurt the sport of boxing. With so many sanctioning organizations and title belts floating around, it has become very difficult, even for hardcore fans, to keep track of the champions in each respective weight division. Several years ago, the WBA did their best to further confuse fans by creating a "super title." According to the rules of the WBA, a boxer can only become a super champion if he was successful in unifying at least two major titles. The rule, as explained by the WBA, was supposed to give a unified champion breathing room to make mandatory defenses.

 

The WBA has thrown their own rules out the window. No longer does a fighter have to own two or more major titles to become a "super champion."  The WBA is creating super champions at every turn - and creating them with little regard for the fans of the sport.

 

When Yuri Nuzhnenko won the WBA's interim welterweight title and tried pressing the sanctioning body for a shot at the full title, the WBA elevated him to the status of full champion and made then newly crowned champion Antonio Margarito the "super champion." Margarito was not a unified champion, he wasn't injured and there were no scheduling conflicts. Even after Mosley knocked out Margarito in January, the WBA continued to list Mosley as the super champion and Nuzhnenko as the "regular" champion. The decision making process was obvious. The WBA is doubling their profit by demanding sanctioning fees from two welterweight champions instead of one. And they even triple their profits when there is an interim-champion around. The maneuvering for profits has turned their titles into a joke because they continue to create multiple champions in a single weight division.

 

Even on the biggest scale, at heavyweight, the WBA has had two champions for the last few months with Ruslan Chagaev holding the title of WBA "champion in recess" and Nikolai Valuev being the regular WBA champion. That situation will eventually be settled when the two fighters get together for their rematch but until then we are stuck with two WBA heavyweight champions.

 

Now comes the latest news that Chris John, the undefeated WBA featherweight champion, is becoming a "super champion" and the upcoming fight between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Jose Rojas, on April 17, will have the WBA's regular title on the line. By April 18, there will be two WBA featherweight champions. The sanctioning body claims that John is being elevated to super champion as a reward for having ten successful title defenses. If that was their reason for making John the super champion, what was the reason behind Margarito's sudden elevation to super champion status? Margarito had never been a WBA champion in the past, he never made a single defense of the title and he lost it in his very first outing.

 

John is going to be the guest of honor at the WBA's meeting  in Cartegena, Colombia, which runs from April 31 to May 2. Fighters have to stop accepting these “super” titles and open their eyes. John is not the one being rewarded here. The WBA is being rewarded as they will now have two champions who pay them sanctioning fees at featherweight.