Starting a couple years ago, WBA tried to do something right and get rid of the WBA super title. It was a slow process, but they actually got rid of some of the super titles.
Recently they started to create new super titles by elevating the regular title holder. At the same time they scheduled fights for the vacant regular title again.
1) Taguchi unified against Melindo and was elevated to super champ.
Carlos Canizales and reiya konishi are now scheduled to fight for the regular title.
2) The dorticos vs gassiev fight was elevated to super champ. Lebedev was announced to be champion in recess.
Right immediately the WBA scheduled Arsen Goulamirian (?) vs Ryad Merhy (??) for the regular title.
In short, boxing is never going to change :dance:
next up in wbas belt chaos.
Alberto Machado is currently the 130 WBA champ.
The Gervonta Davis Vs Jesus Cuellar fight is sanctioned for the vacant 130 Super WBA belt for no apparent reasons.
I once thought you get upgraded to super champ when you unify or defended your wba belt 5 or 6 times.
Now the belt just get sanctioned out of nowhere between davis, who couldnt bother to make weight in his last fight and cuellar, who is coming off a 1 year break and a knockout loss.
All of the sanctioning bodies are sketchy. Still wondering how they all come up with significantly different rankings month after month. WBC is the worst when it comes to inventing belts and some of the fights they are willing to sanction.
I agree all would do the same thing given the opportunity.
Sanctioning a fight between a 49-0 fighter and a 0-0 fighter was nothing but a money grab for the fees and the bogus belt that came with it.
There were no fees. The fight was not sanctioned by the WBC. The WBC gave an honorary award to the winner.
Each organization ranks the tops fighters currently pursuing their title. Top fighters are rarely pursuing all four titles. Their promoters or managers typically have them focus on one or two to maximize their chances of climbing the rankings and earning a title shot.
The four sets of rankings are so different because they have four different objectives. Fans like to think of boxing as one league, but the truth is that boxing is four separate leagues and the rankings reflect that.
I much prefer the WBC's way of doing things to the WBA's. With the WBC, you know who the world champion is. There is one world champion. If they want to award an honorary "diamond belt" for a significant non-title fight, I don't see who that hurts. Nor do I see how that is worse than the WBA's super world champion and regular world champion nonsense.
Sanctioning a fight between a 49-0 fighter and a 0-0 fighter was nothing but a money grab for the fees and the bogus belt that came with it. Should have been an exhibition. WBA refused to sanction it.
All of the sanctioning bodies are sketchy. Still wondering how they all come up with significantly different rankings month after month.
Each organization ranks the tops fighters currently pursuing their title. Top fighters are rarely pursuing all four titles. Their promoters or managers typically have them focus on one or two to maximize their chances of climbing the rankings and earning a title shot.
The four sets of rankings are so different because they have four different objectives. Fans like to think of boxing as one league, but the truth is that boxing is four separate leagues and the rankings reflect that.
WBC is the worst when it comes to inventing belts and some of the fights they are willing to sanction.
I much prefer the WBC's way of doing things to the WBA's. With the WBC, you know who the world champion is. There is one world champion. If they want to award an honorary "diamond belt" for a significant non-title fight, I don't see who that hurts. Nor do I see how that is worse than the WBA's super world champion and regular world champion nonsense.
Damn. That's super disappointing. I guess the writing was on the wall when they approved Charr-Ustinov and Matthysse-Kiram for regular titles.
The WBA WBC IBF poster had some arguments why those were scheduled and it was somewhat comprehensible.
The intention was to keep the regular title and get rid of the super title. So the Super dude had to fight the regular dude to make this happen.
Heavyweight was a special case, because of their mess with oquendo (who has a right to challenge for the title, dont ask me why) and briggs and browne, who tested positive. They just wanted to settle the mess with the WBA regular title, so Joshua wouldnt be bothered by it.
Peterson vacated his regular title and they needed a new regular title holder to face off against the super dude, so they could get rid off the super title. Matthysse Vs Kiram got scheduled. Stupid rule, but that's how they operated.
But in the most recent cases they actually created new Super titles again, even though those divisions were already freed from the super title.
That is stupid. There should only be THE champion. No super champion and no regular champion or any other strange type of champion. Just one champion and the others are all contenders rated from 1st contender to 10th contender. 15 contenders is 5 to many. For over 100 years there were 10 contenders for a champion to chose to fight. Now with 15 contenders some champions can look over them all and pick the easiest one to beat. That's what Horn just did. Champions should defend their titles at least twice a year and one of those defenses should be with the number 1 contender and the other defense against a boxer rated 10th or higher.
I think the writers and the boxing community can help by not recognizing the 'Regular' title
-- boxingscene and other news outlets recognize the WBA 'Regular' in its rankings by having its champion in bold font with the rest of the world titles ( IBF, WBC, WBO ) ; the informed fan know the WBA 'Super' is the only one that matters now -- we have no problem not recognizing 'Silver' titles by the WBC.
Its not up the WBA how we value its bullsh*t second rate title, thats on us.
All of the sanctioning bodies are sketchy. Still wondering how they all come up with significantly different rankings month after month. WBC is the worst when it comes to inventing belts and some of the fights they are willing to sanction.