Comments Thread For: WBA Aims To Continue Eliminating Titles, Start Drug Testing Policy

[Bronx2245]

Good to see WBA looking to implement drug testing program. I think the networks should get in on the testing bandwagon. If the networks refused to show fights (or issued fines) unless the fighters tested clean, that would help clean up the sport!

[JJRod]

The best thing the WBA could do for boxing is disband. And convince the WBO and IBF to join them.

The sport would do just fine with only the WBC to keep an eye on.

Or rather if all 4 alphabet titles combined into just one.
Wbaoc or whatever they want to call it.

[Eastcoast]

it's up to the fans to stop accepting these other organizations. WBC has always been the real deal. the WBA should have lost their recognition when they started the super champion non-sense and the IBF & WBO should never have been recognized.

Yeah getting rid of belts or sanctioning bodies is like digging in the sand. There'll always be a niche for a promoter/fighter to use a second-hand title (IBO, WBF) for marketing purposes.

What I really would like to see is for the global boxing media to come to an agreement on rankings. Right now every boxing media outlet has their own ratings (and most then turn around and mock the abc's...). From Fat Dan to The Ring, everybody has their own rankings for their own marketing purposes. Fans need to forget attacking the orgs and attack the media to agree to a unified power ratings.

[nycsmooth]

They're a dollar short and a year behind as far as what the WBC is doing for drug testing but I have like eliminating several of the worthless titles that are a name only...

[ShoulderRoll]

The WBA exists because the New York State Athletic Commission was the most powerful entity in boxing. The biggest fights in the world took place in New York and the local commission had the power to create world championships.

The other state commissions were very jealous and upset, so they teamed up to combine their power to try to compete with the NYSAC by creating the National Boxing Association (which later became the WBA, with the NYSAC & EBU later creating the WBC).


The IBF exists because for years Don King controlled the WBC and Bob Arum controlled the WBA. Eventually, King started to take control of the WBA as well. Sensing that King was edging him out of the business, Arum threw all of his weight behind the USBA-International (which became the IBF) and started promoting USBA-I fights as "world title" fights and largely stopped working with the WBA.

Arum also publicly outed the WBA for accepting bribes via bagman Pepe Cordero. Pepe was a promoter in Puerto Rico and you had to give him cash to move up the WBA rankings. Which worked great for Arum for years until Don King started offering more money and Pepe & the WBA switched allegiances.

But Arum going public about the arrangement put Pepe & the WBA in a terrible position and Pepe lost favor in the organization, even though he didn't hold an official position. It gave the WBA plausible deniability that they used a third party to accept the bribes.

Pepe held a lot of sway in the sport from his years as WBA bagman and wasn't happy about being pushed out of the equation (he'd been keeping a % of every bribe).

So Pepe created the WBO so that nobody could stop him from accepting as many bribes as possible. He had been the middle man before, but why be the middle man accepting bribes on behalf of an organization when you can just start your own organization and keep all the money?

Great little summary of the history involved. People associated with the WBA have been responsible for both the IBF and WBO coming into existence.

The WBA has been a cancer to boxing since the day it sprang to life.

Or rather if all 4 alphabet titles combined into just one.
Wbaoc or whatever they want to call it.

That would be acceptable.

The WBC seems to be the most well run at the moment and their drug testing program is a good thing for the sport.

But we can't forget how corrupt they have been as well, especially under Jose Sulaiman during Don King's heyday.

[original zero]

What I really would like to see is for the global boxing media to come to an agreement on rankings. Right now every boxing media outlet has their own ratings (and most then turn around and mock the abc's...). From Fat Dan to The Ring, everybody has their own rankings for their own marketing purposes. Fans need to forget attacking the orgs and attack the media to agree to a unified power ratings.

But the media's rankings are irrelevant. Almost every fight that is made is based on trying to move a fighter up the rankings of one of the four organizations.

Was talking about this with a promoter the other day. The damage the media has done trying to ignore the sanctioning bodies for decades. I covered HBO & Showtime fights from press row for many years and I understand why so many media members think ignoring the sanctioning bodies is the right approach, but they've taken that approach for nearly 50 years and it hasn't worked.

All it's done is made it easier for the orgs to get away with anything they want. So the media needs to take a lot of the blame here. Their job is to cover the news. But they haven't done their job. They've tried to ignore the news in a misguided attempt at social engineering. They should be ashamed of themselves. The orgs have more power than ever and there are more orgs than ever, so clearly the "ignoring" approach was a complete disaster.

[yngwie]

But they still sanctioned the N'damn vs Blanco fight for one of their 57 titles per division.

[original zero]

But they still sanctioned the N'damn vs Blanco fight for one of their 57 titles per division.

they can't just take the belt away. they'll get sued like the WBC did with rocchigiani.

that is why it's taking a while to eliminate the extra titles, but they do have substantially fewer now than they did a year ago.

GGG vs JACOBS will eliminate one of the three WBA middleweight world titles and then eventually n'dam's belt will be eliminated once another mandatory takes place.

[yngwie]

they can't just take the belt away. they'll get sued like the WBC did with rocchigiani.

that is why it's taking a while to eliminate the extra titles, but they do have substantially fewer now than they did a year ago.

GGG vs JACOBS will eliminate one of the three WBA middleweight world titles and then eventually n'dam's belt will be eliminated once another mandatory takes place.

But i thought that they took the title of Rocchigiani because Jones moved back in weight and they gave him a title without a fight.

[original zero]

But i thought that they took the title of Rocchigiani because Jones moved back in weight and they gave him a title without a fight.

WBC claimed rocchigiani was only the interim champion. he sued and won $31 million, bankrupting the WBC and nearly leading to the creation of the UBC.

WBA has been very very careful to avoid a similar lawsuit. their handling of lucas browne, their handling of chagaev, the situation with oquendo, etc. the WBA isn't just going to get rid of belts. they're going to have to go away naturally via mandatory fights.

but the WBA does have far fewer world champions than they had a year ago and there are 8 divisions already where they managed to get down to 1 champion from 3.

so progress is being made. just taking longer than people wanted.