WBC Prez: As Part of Gender Equality Project, All Belts Now The Same

[Ruthless-RKO]

At the closing of the 58th convention of the World Boxing Council, the president of the organization, Mauricio Sulaiman, announced that as part of the gender equality project, they will deliver the same belts to their champions in the men's and women's branches from this point forward.

The new direction began on Saturday, August 15. The new women's belts have now discarded any details colored in pink, and the word 'female' will be removed from all titles.



The first belt awarded as part of this project, went to Jessica McCaskill, who shocked longtime champion Cecilia Braekhus with a ten round unanimous decision in Tulsa.

“It is the first belt for women that does not have the inscription of 'female'. The women asked for this show of fairness, and now each of our champions will receive this exact belt. Usually the belt for them was smaller, with the design of a flower, details in pink, but we've heard from them and now the belt is exactly the same as that of the male branch," said Sulaimán, according to ESPN Deportes.

In the same manner, Sulaimán stressed that the boxing community must adapt to the use of technology, just as they were forced to hold the entire annual convention virtually because of the impossibility of meeting in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Without a doubt, technology is here to stay. It is opening our eyes to everything, it is making us innovate for the benefit of everyone through the use of remote judges, instant replay, communication between supervisors and officials participating in events.... holding events, purse bids will be this way as well. Efficient training can be given for officials, coaches, supervisors, and the great possibility of doing boxing functions for small promoters," added Sulaiman.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Previous Belts





Even the WBO women's belt looks smaller

[Enlightened-One]

Some interesting questions to be answered:

• Does the WBC consider the word “female” as being derogatory?

• Surely they have to distinguish the sexes somehow, because the WBC website still contains words referring to male and female terminology?

• The WBC also applies different rules for women as opposed to men, such as the duration of rounds. So does this mean they’ll be revising their rules? If they don’t, then how can the WBC implement these rules without using male & female terminology?

• If the word “female” is allegedly synonymous with gender inequality and abuse, then does this mean that only allowing bouts exclusively involving “cisgender women” is a form of sexual discrimination?

• If gender no longer exists in the sport of boxing, then does this mean that it is socially and morally acceptable to allow a biologically assigned female at birth, such as Claressa Shields, fight Canelo at 160lbs?

• Does anyone know any “cisgender women” (that are active participants in the sport of boxing) passionately clamouring for this change of terminology?

• Did the WBC implement this change to minimise criticism (by preventing accusations of "hate speech", misogyny or so-called "discrimination") from the safe-space seeking SJW language police, which are usually leftist liberal millennial student-type snowflakes?

Note: I intentionally used PC terminology, not because I actually agree with it, but to prevent my questions from being deemed as “hate speech”.

[Lenny Cravats]

Good choice.

[tiny_acres]

Some interesting questions to be answered:



Note: I intentionally used PC terminology, not because I actually agree with it, but to prevent my questions from being deemed as “hate speech”.

No matter what we say or do. Someone will be offended and consider it hate speech.
Sad but true

[margaret thatcher]

The blue IBF one for women looks better anyway, love me some of that f@cking colour

[RScarf1]

The IBF female belts are the same as the men except the men's are red and women's are light blue. The WBC female belts looked like a green flower which was a lot different than the men's. The WBC does not want women to fight three minute rounds. That needs to be changed for the women to have equality. Also, it's harder to score two minute rounds as commentators have mentioned.

[gilgamesh]

Nice thought, but they're not the same, and never will be.

[ldlamb]

I actually enjoy watching womens sports in general.... but pushes like this to say they are “equal” is nonsense.

THE WBC believes, I assume, that Errol Spence can beat all fighters 147 lbs or less....hence why he is the world champion....needing no qualifier.

I also assume, that they believe Jessica McCaskill is the best female or women’s fighter at 147lbs or less.

Unless they believe that she could compete with and possibly beat Errol Spence, then she is the “women’s” champion at that weight....a great accomplishment but one that needs a qualifier since she is only champion of a subsection.

Of course, the WBC could really believe that Errol Spence is only the champion of men and that makes his dominion equal to that of McCaskill.

In that case, the WBC should sanction unification matches....but in reality that will never happen because not only would it be extremely uncompetitive....it would be dangerous and borderline criminal to do so.

[Bard of Boxrec]

I just don’t get moves like this. Do they feel like social justice will get more people into women’s sports? When they do it in football reports it just misleads and annoys people. Not the best look.