In light of recent actions by the WBA sanctioning body, mainly the situation with Gamboa, Klitschko's ordeal of having to beat 2 wba champs to still have a portion of his belt split between undeserving Povetkin and Chagaev, the 4!!! champions in every weight class, I've grown to dislike and doubt the legitimacy of wba crown. Since the 90's WBO was the new kid and taken somewhat lightly, but the question is, has WBO caught up/surpassed WBA?
The Ring is not a sanctioning organisation. They're attempt to bring some clarity to the bauble mess had excellent intentions. It's been some what tainted now that GBP has bought "The Ring". Still far as im concerned it's the only belt that has significance as the champion is always the man who beat the man.
It does'nt really matter anymore who has what belt, they've become close to insignificant. Whether there is a title at stake or not, its the matchup that now weigh. The alphabet groups and their belts are worth what wrestling's WWE titles are.......zero....the orginization decides who should have one.:?
WBA is ****, corrupt institution, ridiculous, DKP owns that strap. WBO and IBO are weak. WBC and IBF are decent, but that's it. The only belt that really matters is THE RING. People should recognize it a lot more.
The IBF were investigated along with DKP by the FBI for corruption. Realistically the WBC and WBA have the most meaning as they are the oldest. The IBF appeared in the early 80's with Larry Holmes as their inaugural champ. I believe they were a splinter fork of the WBA. They simply handed the title to Hagler who was also their inaugural champ at 160. Likewise the WBO did the same with Francisco Damiani when Tyson was the consensus number one in the division back in 1989. No one cared who Francisco was ( despite being ranked in the top 10 ) and no one cared about the WBO for obvious reasons. It did though become a boon for Sports network with many Frank Wa*ren fighters contesting the belt. It's also the only belt to ever have a dead man in it's rankings. WBO mandatory's during the 90's and early 2000's were an utter joke. How Freeman Barr ever become Joe Calzaghes mandatory il never know. He was such unbelievably poor opponent that even Joe refused to fight him despite Joe having a penchant for feasting on nobody's. The IBO have a computerised point's ranking which does make sense. But again they were somewhat of a spurious belt. They just handed their title to a fighter whenever there was a significant fight on. And equally some of their champions were of the joke variety. I remember Jawaid Khaliq held their belt at 147 and actually called out Vernon Forest. Suffice to say Khaliq barely scraped the top 10. Likewise Richard Williams held the belt and was battered by Martinez twice when Martinez was a relative unknown. Martinez dispensed with the title not long after he beat Williams and Stone.
So we becomes slaves to tradition? Creationism has more HISTORY behind it, yet we teach EVOLUTION at high schools