Canelo-GGG, Joshua-Parker To Have Special WBA Belts at Stake

By Miguel Rivera

The president of the World Boxing Association, Gilberto Mendoza, has announced that his organization is ready to recognize the winners of five fights - that are scheduled in the coming months - with commemorative belts that will be distinguished with some special features.

The World Boxing Council has been issuing commemorative belts for several years - like the Diamond belt, money belt, ruby belt and several others.

Now the WBA is getting involved with their own series of belts for special events that involve one of their world champions.

The first fight scheduled to be awarded a special WBA - is the heavyweight unification between sanctioning body champion Anthony Joshua and WBO king Joshua Parker, which is scheduled for March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Another fight that will also have a commemorative belt will be the Cinco De Mayo rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which will feature WBA 'super' champion Gennady Golovkin against challenger Canelo Alvarez.

The third fight which is going to receive a special belt will be the recently finalized fight involving Jorge Linares, who is the WBA lightweight world champion, who will defend his belt against Vasyl Lomachenko on May 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"Those are the three fights that we have planned so far with a special event belt, which will include the silhouettes of the two fighters plus details in gold with the date and location of the fight in question. and also we have belts planned for the finals of the World Boxing Super Series," said Mendoza to ESPN Deportes.

For the WBSS finals, in the cruiserweight portion there will be a unification showdown between Murat Gassiev against Oleksander Usyk for the titles of the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO, while in the super middleweight portion the WBA is waiting for confirmation on a finalized date for the finale between Callum Smith and George Groves, who is the champion of the WBA.