BoxRec

"WBA hard at work creating meaningless lightweight title"

The August 15th edition of Showtime Championship Boxing will feature Rolando "Rolly" Romero taking on fellow unbeaten Jackson Maríñez in a twelve-round battle for the interim WBA lightweight title. [The WBA already recognizes Vasiliy Lomachenko as super champion, Gervonta Davis as regular champion and Yvan Mendy as gold champion. Romero has never gone more than six rounds and has never been in a fight scheduled for ten rounds].

The WBA rates Jackson Maríñez in 6th place and Rolando "Rolly" Romero is rated 7th. Both fighters are unbeaten, but neither man has defeated anyone of any note.

The president of the World Boxing Association, Gilberto Mendoza, previously admitted that it was difficult to reduce the number of titles that his organization sanctions.

“They tell me that there must be only one champion, but they don't give me solid arguments. They tell me that [the titles] are devalued, but when we talk about making a tournament to set a single champion, not everyone wants to enter it. When we talk about accepting a champion versus champion fight - not everyone is willing to take part," Mendoza told ESPN Deportes.

"And on the other hand... a boxer with a title does better, a boxer who gets himself a title fight does better, a network that broadcasts a title fight does better, a promoter who has a title fight does better. The same fan [who complains], if he knows there is a title at stake, they are more attentive [to the fight]."

"We would love to have a balance in terms of titles, but what is the balance that we could we offer?" Mendoza said.

Thoughts?

What an absolute joke.. he’s the WBA prez..

He can order fights.. if a boxer doesn’t want to take the fight, strip them.

Mendoza is just a bending over type isn’t he.

Is there any need for a #6 and #7 ranked boxers to fight for an interim belt?

Why can’t it just be sanctioned to elevate their status in the rankings?

In 2016, the WBA was consolidating the titles by having the champions in each division fight each other. I guess that is no longer a goal for them because more belts means more sanctioning fees.

It seems that the WBA are so desperate to recoup the sanctioning fees they missed out on during the coronavirus, that they’ve decided to award the winner of Morrell-Allen bout the vacant interim world super-middleweight title.

It seems obvious that Osvary David Morrell is being fast-tracked to becoming a world titleholder in order to emulate Vasiliy Lomachenko’s feat, because the talented Cuban will only be competing in his third professional bout.

The WBA is a sickeningly bad governing body that seems intent on damaging the sports’ reputation as much as they possibly can!

For the record, Callum Smith holds the super world 168lbs title, Canelo is still listed as the regular champion and Fedor Chudinov is in possession of the GOLD belt.

So assuming Morrell claims the vacant interim title, the WBA will have four titleholders at 168lbs.

There needs to be a fan and boxing media coordinated effort to stop mentioning or talking about the wba. They have ceased to be relevant

The WBA appear to have doubled down on issuing interim title belts, because the winner of Saturday night’s bout between Jamal James' and Thomas Dulorme will capture the vacant 147lbs championship.

This is getting beyond the joke now! Since the lockdown ended, the WBA have sanctioned three vacant interim title fights.

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 03:57 The WBA appear to have doubled down on issuing interim title belts, because the winner of Saturday night’s bout between Jamal James' and Thomas Dulorme will capture the vacant 147lbs championship.

This is getting beyond the joke now! Since the lockdown ended, the WBA have sanctioned three vacant interim title fights.

That fight was always an interim belt fight

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 04:09

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 03:57 The WBA appear to have doubled down on issuing interim title belts, because the winner of Saturday night’s bout between Jamal James' and Thomas Dulorme will capture the vacant 147lbs championship.

This is getting beyond the joke now! Since the lockdown ended, the WBA have sanctioned three vacant interim title fights.

That fight was always an interim belt fight

Yeah, sorry. The media have only recently been dwelling on the WBA's insistence to sanction fights where the winner captures a vacant interim title. So I only just read about the fact that James-Dulorme is yet another vacant WBA interim title fight.

Its getting to the point where I myself just want to watch a fight nevermind the "titles" involved.

AntonioMartin wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 04:29 Its getting to the point where I myself just want to watch a fight nevermind the "titles" involved.

Same. As long as it’s a good fight. In my mind, I know which ones are the best boxers.

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 04:30

AntonioMartin wrote: ↑07 Aug 2020, 04:29 Its getting to the point where I myself just want to watch a fight nevermind the "titles" involved.

Same. As long as it’s a good fight. In my mind, I know which ones are the best boxers.

yessr!

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑06 Aug 2020, 10:20 It seems that the WBA are so desperate to recoup the sanctioning fees they missed out on during the coronavirus, that they’ve decided to award the winner of Morrell-Allen bout the vacant interim world super-middleweight title.

It seems obvious that Osvary David Morrell is being fast-tracked to becoming a world titleholder in order to emulate Vasiliy Lomachenko’s feat, because the talented Cuban will only be competing in his third professional bout.

The WBA is a sickeningly bad governing body that seems intent on damaging the sports’ reputation as much as they possibly can!

For the record, Callum Smith holds the super world 168lbs title, Canelo is still listed as the regular champion and Fedor Chudinov is in possession of the GOLD belt.

So assuming Morrell claims the vacant interim title, the WBA will have four titleholders at 168lbs.

What the hell is with this interim title fight BS? I just watched the fight and give credit to the Cuban Morrell who went 12 rounds in his 3rd fight and won. But I thought interim meant like in between or temporary when there isn’t already a champ. These ABCs suck and are useless and have long ruined boxing. It’s hard to believe Allen was 22-0. As long as these useless ABCs exist, boxing will never regain their hay days. I know I’m preaching to the choir but....

JMac wrote: ↑08 Aug 2020, 21:19What the hell is with this interim title fight BS? I just watched the fight and give credit to the Cuban Morrell who went 12 rounds in his 3rd fight and won. But I thought interim meant like in between or temporary when there isn’t already a champ. These ABCs suck and are useless and have long ruined boxing. It’s hard to believe Allen was 22-0. As long as these useless ABCs exist, boxing will never regain their hay days. I know I’m preaching to the choir but....

If there was no champ, it would be for a vacant title. Interim title fights happen usually because the champ cannot fight due to injury. However, the sanctioning bodies sometimes have an interim champ even when there already is a champ who is capable of making a title defense.

The wba is great. Someday, when we all are wba world champions you will all agree

(For a small sanctioning fee)

The WBA should be limited to one world title per weight.
Or pass a McCain law that creates one sanctioning body and eliminates the alphabet belts.
it would help boxing.

From Boxing Scene:

The September 6 telecast also will include a 12-round, 140-pound bout between WBA interim super lightweight champion Alberto Puello and Rances Barthelemy. The third fight FOX will air that night will feature undefeated 140-pound prospect Jesus Ramos (12-0, 11 KOs), whose opponent had not been secured as of Saturday night.

There are 52 WBA “world level” titles currently in circulation (i.e. super, regular, interim & gold).

Here’s a list of the fifty men that holds these titles (source: WBA & ESPN):

• Anthony Joshua
• Mahmoud Charr
• Trevor Bryan
• Robert Helenius
• Arsen Goulamirian
• Beibut Shumenov
• Ryad Merhy
• Alexey Egorov
• Dmitry Bivol
• Jean Pascal
• Dominic Boesel
• Callum Smith
• Saul Alvarez
• Fedor Chudinov
• David Morrell
• Ryota Murata
• Chris Eubank Jr
• Jeison Manuel Rosario
• Erislandy Lara
• Michel Soro
• Manny Pacquiao
• Vergil Ortiz Jr
• Jamal James
• Josh Taylor
• Mario Barrios
• Alberto Puello
• Ismael Barroso
• Vasiliy Lomachenko
• Gervonta Davis
• Yvan Mendy
• Leo Santa Cruz
• Rene Alvarado
• Chris Colbert
• Mark Urbanov
• Can Xu
• Murodjon Akhmadaliev
• Brandon Figueroa
• Ronny Rios
• Naoya Inoue
• Guillermo Rigondeaux
• Roman Gonzalez
• Joshua Franco
• Mikhail Avakian
• Artem Dalakian
• Luis Concepcion
• Hiroto Kyoguchi
• Carlos Canizales
• Daniel Matellon
• Thammanoon Niyomtrong
• Leyman Benavides

Leo Santa Cruz holds two titles (“super” champ at 126lbs and 130lbs). And when he faces Gervonta Davis in October, both the WBA "regular" lightweight and also the WBA "super" world super featherwieght titles will be on the line (and no, that's not a typo either, where I've accidentally repeated the same word, that it's actual name).

So he could potentially hold three WBA titles at the same time!

By the way, Canelo also holds two titles (“super” at 160lbs and “regular” at 168lbs).

This weekend, Rolando Romero and Jackson Marinez will be competing for the vacant WBA interim lightweight title.

That will take the total tally of WBA titles being held to 53, but there are only seventeen weight divisions!

Perhaps there are more vacant WBA “title” fights in the pipeline that I’m either not aware of or haven’t been officially announced yet.

The WBA president gots da covid, maybe that's gawd's punishment for all these bogus belts

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑12 Aug 2020, 20:55 The WBA president gots da covid, maybe that's gawd's punishment for all these bogus belts

LOL! Very Jerry Falwell of you.

Only WBA super champions are world champions. The rest just have a shiny belt.

Fans define what a belt means, and I think fans can agree that a governing body can’t have more than 1 real champ per weight class.

The WBA has the most belts and is the most flagrant with it, but the WBC franchise champ is kinda the weirdest single thing to me. Like for example, is the winner of Loma vs Teo the undisputed (As in all major belts)? cause i mean Loma had the 'nomal' wbc, but then became franchise. now we also have Haney with the wbc belt

And could Loma still 'challenge' Haney for the wbc belt?