A brief history of the ABC era (boxing's sanctioning organizations)

Okay, just saw on the modern IBU website they do in fact claim the antebellum version as their ancestor, with a "title history" page from 1913 until 2015 (probably just a slacking/underpaid webmaster; the last IBU world title match was actually contested in 2016 and their lesser titles - American, Continental, etc - have been contested as recently as just a few months ago) but that's more than a little fishy. 60 year gap, and they're based in Atlanta instead of Paris, and they provide no evidence to substantiate the connection. I'm going to guess they just borrowed the name and hoped nobody would call them on it.

 

Yeah, between 1891 and 1980 there were twenty (notable) organizations created and more than half of those were self-avowed regional bodies with no aspirations to have "world championship" recognition authority. That is twenty, in 90 years, averaging one every 4.5 years coming into being.

In the eighties and nineties combined there were 22 newcomers - averaging 1.1 newbie annually. Thirteen of those - more than half of 22 - purport to wield the officialdom to designate world champions (although to be fair, a few of those only proclaim jurisdiction over female boxing).

 

Yeah, the WBC made its belt green from close to if not as early as its very inception, with the inaugural matches in 1963. This happened to be SMACK in the middle of the Color Television boom, starting in 1960 and peaking (and usurping the medium from black-and-white) in 1965. Green in particular really 'popped' on the dot-sequential and shadow-mask technologies of the day used in common household color television sets. The fact that it shares a first letter with Glory sounds like something a guy in a boardroom cooked up and felt really clever about, but really it came down to focus groups indicating that green is the color the human eye most enjoys looking at, holding especially true on early CRT's that used primitive systems.

I'm not sure what the WBA's excuse is, really. Their "burnt-umber"/espresso/dark hickory would be a fine choice for a leather sofa but isn't telegenic in the least. They were only formed a year before the WBC, too, so it wasn't as if they were fossils of the b+w transmission era, in which case you could maybe understand having a very murky shade of brown. Maybe the idea was to have the belt itself look as boring as possible so as to illuminate the gold centerpiece and make that look more fabulous? Sort of like the philosophy behind a moderately attractive girl finding a much uglier friend to be her "wing-woman", I guess... In any event, I did them a favor by coding them in the OP with light blue, which is their widely recognized logo's color (while all the others got coded by their belt color). They really should have re-branded themselves with light blue titles matching the logo at some point in the last 56 years. Guess the higher offices at the WBA must be a shambles - oh wait, not exactly breaking news! (hence why there's even an IBF & WBO to discuss! )

Nobody else clued into the "primary colors please the optic nerve" truism until the IBF, a full twenty years later. Bright red was the obvious next choice to go with after the WBC had reserved bright green for itself - both are known to engage and excite observers. (whereas any shade of blue that doesn't have a strong depressive emotional resonance tends instead to have a lulling and somnolent effect - not the kind of association you want to have with a championship fighter!)

Unified champs with the WBC and IBF straps on either shoulder make for incredible photo-ops. It just looks really cool.

For some reason I find myself liking the design of the WBO mulberry (or whatever that shade of purplish-brown is called) belt, with the globe rendered in blue oceans with gilded continents and rimmed in gold with a red gem studded eagle on top, flanked by two smaller reflective gold discs. Not as visually striking as the green-and-gold or red-and-gold of the WBC & IBF, but it has a classy look. Beats the heck outta the WBA's, anyway.

 

This picture says it all.

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At least 65% of the surface area there is just a drab amorphous blotch of dirty rawhide.

 

Yeah, the founder, Bob Lee (who created the IBF almost out purely of spite in a hissy-fit after Gilberto Mendoza defeated him narrowly in an election to become WBA president; Lee alleged with interference from Bob Arum, who later did admit complicity in controlling a coupe of votes in the Orient but it remains unclear if they decided the outcome), after having been the head of the NJ commission for years (and thus in a position to lead the USBA to break from the WBA) trumpeted himself in the eighties as the "reformer" here to save pro boxing from the bureaucracy and bloat of the erstwhile Big Two - and then sixteen years later became the first acting head of a major boxing sanctioning body to be convicted of felonious (27 counts!!!) corruption & racketeering.

 

Yeah, the WBO really ought to send the Italian Dragon in particular daily thank-you notes, maybe bake him a 10' tall cake w/ mulberry & gold frosting for his upcoming nuptials (with longtime gf Lucy Griffith)

So did the WBA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Boxing_Association#Ranking_of_Ali_Raymi_despite_his_death

 

Like another individual named Robert Lee who led a rebellion vs. a large and powerful institution, Bob W. sure ended up on the wrong side of history.