The best I can tell William Joppy was the first instance of a WBA regular champion who held that title concurrently with super champion Bernard Hopkins. I found an interview with Hopkins from 2002 telling people to ask WBA pres Mendoza what all that is about. Does anybody know if there's a press release on it? Or the circumstances that led to the creation of a regular/super champ?
Another related question worth asking: what was the first instance of an interim champ defending that title while the real champ defended theirs? I'm guessing that predates the WBA invention of regular champs. I know Jorge Arce defended his interim title like 5 times while Wonjongkam defended the real one, but that was in 2005, after the WBA regular was a thing.
Super champ and regular champion started and was initially just supposed to be for fighters who had unified belts so that’s how Joppy got to become “regular champ” but then they decided over time to just do it in every division regardless. Just greed to get more sanctioning fees.
Obviously, it's all about money. I'm looking for stuff like press releases and what not to cement when and how. I think interim champs defending their titles is the precedent. I can't even find who the first interim champ was, let alone the first to defend that status.
Okay, I figured it out. Them brainstorming this started with interim titles. https://www.wbaboxing.com/boxing-news/wba-clarifies-need-for-interim-titles From there, it was just formalizing this process by having regular and super champs. Basically negating the idea the two have to fight each other. WBC was just following their lead I suppose.
