They are the biggest joke of a boxing org. They have 4 champions at Cruiserweight ffs! laughing stock. Cruiserweight (200 lb/90.7 kg)[edit] WBA Oleksandr Usyk Super champion Ukraine 16–0 (12 KO) July 21, 2018 Beibut Shumenov Regular champion Kazakhstan 18–2 (12 KO) Arsen Goulamirian Interim champion France 24–0 (16 KO) March 24, 2018 Denis Lebedev Champion in recess Russia 31–2–0–1 (23 KO) February 1, 2018
People always complain that too many divisions are hurting boxing. I don't agree because the junior/super divisions like 122, 130, 140, etc have given the sport so many great fights and great champions. Its criminals like the WBA, WBC, etc. that are wrecking this sport, although its reached a point where I think the majority of fight fans are smart enough to know who the quality fighters are without the help of the alphabet cartels. When Carlos Baldomir fought Zab Judah I remember he declined to pay several of the sanctioning fees for the title Zab held at the time. I was hopeful that that would be the beginning of a trend where boxers would boycott the alphabet gangs, but unfortunately it appeared to be a one time thing. It sucks because even championship level fighters rarely get paid enough that they should have to **** away thousands of dollars for plastic belts, especially when the sanctioning bodies constantly pull ridiculous stunts like stripping titles while violating their own bylaws.
Too many belts, not divisions. 8 belts in each div diminishes what it means to be a champion. Should be no more than 2 belts in each weight class and have the champions fight each other every few years.
The way Hearn is going about his business trying to dominate boxing on a global stage, I bet he is making moves to create his own sanctioning body. The WBSS kind of set a precedent with their own "trophy".
I'm surprised they only have 4, lol. But agreed they are awful, they are so bad they make the other sanctioning bodies look good and that's quite an achievement. From all the belts, to all the issues with the WBA regular heavyweight belt to clearly not enforcing their VADA anti doping program they are truly a horrendous organisation.
Dont blame the WBA! blame the "Boxing fans" and their endless stupidity. nobody Forces them to buy pay-per-views. or tickets to the actual Events. or even makes them tune in on free-tv. Boxing organisations have been giving the finger to the "Boxing consumer" for nearly as Long as the Sport has been around. but the fans still are willing to bend over and take it. for example: take Arsen Goulamerian the wba "Interim" champ (which obviously makes ZERO sense as there is no "Interim" when you have an actual active Champion). but when he defended the belt against some handpicked guy called flanagan, he didnt do so in privacy! there was a crowd cheering him on. tv was there…….it was there for all to see. the fans didnt care! what can you do against such utter stupidity?
I just treat We Be Atrocious as one large comedy act (albeit an unintended one) . Just look at their HW rankings as an example. They are by far the most hilarious of the boxing orgs and that is an impressive feat.
I agree with the bottom sentiment, but not the top. In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of the super/junior classes have given safe zones to guys who couldn't cut it in traditional weight divisions and a lot of these "great champions" are, at least partly, illusions. Who is Khaosai Galaxy without 115? Who is Ricardo Lopez without 105? Calzaghe without 168? Cervantes without 140? Of course the belts are the biggest concern, but we need far more than complaining on a forum to get stuff done. We need a concentrated effort by fans, media, etc. to fan the winds of change. We need accountability, for instance. There is virtually no investigative journalism in boxing, which is a key tool to keeping politicians somewhat honest.
That's the issue indeed. Nobody investigates the orgs, and the autorities don't seem to care about it at all. Only the IBF (because it was US based) got in trouble with the FBI once and they've been the most decent of the bunch ever since. But the WBC (Mexico), the WBO (Puerto Rico) and the WBA (Panama), seem to be able to get away with murder. Everybody knows the WBA's rankings are a total joke and clearly promoter influenced, the WBC clearly favors Mexicans, Americans and moneymakers, and the WBO favors boxers from certain promoters. There's not much needed for a corruption investigation at all, as they don't even try to hide it in most cases.
