WBA-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Why?

By Aaron Lloyd | www.neutralcorneronline.com

Over the past sixty years, the sport of boxing has evolved from a relatively comprehensible system of eight divisions and eight champions to an indistinguishable myriad of paper champions and unworthy title claimants. The title landscape has become so convoluted these days that every “Tom, Dick y Harry” seemingly is a champion of something or other, and to the casual observer, there is no clear way around the confusion; until now.

One of the missions of Neutral Corner Online is to provide relevant boxing information in a way that can be easily assimilated and processed. Our intention is to tell you want you need to know rather than what we think you want to hear, and by doing this, hopefully we can convert some of the erratic viewers into lifelong devotees. Therefore, the following is a little bit of information that may help you differentiate between the principles and the propaganda.

The three main title organizations are the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). Any other random combination of letters is considerably less impressive. Promoters and television networks love to push the idea of a “title fight” on the unsuspecting public because they feel it will sell more tickets and create more advertising revenue. If I told you a couple of schmucks were going to be shooting three pointers down at the local gym would you pay to go watch them? Hell no you wouldn’t. Now, what if I told you the reigning Intercollegiate Round Ball Union three point shooting champion was coming to the local gym to put on a demonstration? Does that do anything to pique your interest? That actually still sounds pretty crappy but you get my point.

A fighter has to have one of the three major belts in order to be taken seriously, and they must hold all three of these major belts if they want to call themselves “undisputed champions.” Sure, your cousins may ooh and ahh when you bring your shiny, tin plated IBO belt to the annual family reunion, but rest assured that they are snickering behind your back because they know it is not a legitimate piece of hardware. Hey, my 5 year old daughter runs around bragging about an “Elite Gold” she won at a recent dance competition, which also sounds impressive until you realize that “Elite Gold” is merely a polite, PC way of saying you came in third behind the “Elite Platinum” and the “Elite Hope Diamond Necklace.” Look, the truth hurts sometimes, but you can’t just run around lying about the specialness of a third place dance trophy or an “IBO Inter-Continental” boxing title. It’s just not right. So, the next time a bunch of friends talk you into going to watch the reigning “Worldwide Punching Association” champion defend his title, just remember that “real” champions do not defend their titles in the parking lot of a Piggly Wiggly.

So, now that you are familiar with the trickery that television networks and promoters use to sell stale product, you must also realize that just because a fighter holds one of the coveted three belts (WBA, WBC, IBF), that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that they don’t still suck. Confused yet? Here is where it gets complicated so stay with me. Titles and belts are basically all garbage. The organizations are corrupt, their rankings are bought, and they are usually the biggest hindrance to the making of the best fights. Just imagine for a second what happens after a fighter accomplishes the almost impossible task of becoming an undisputed champion. One organization says “You must fight our number one contender.” Another organization says, “You must fight our number one contender,” and so on, until eventually the champion is stripped of one, two or possibly all three titles for his failure to comply with the outrageous demands imposed by the sanctioning bodies. In the meantime, the champion says “I haven’t even heard of these guys. How am I supposed to make money fighting guys that no one has even heard of?” So what does he do? He drops one, two, or possibly all three belts in the trash and fights whoever brings him the most money (as Marvin Hagler did in 1987, choosing to fight Sugar Ray Leonard instead of the WBA mandatory Herol Graham), and in the end, we are back to square one trying to fill vacant titles with inferior stand-ins.

In conclusion, remember there are lots of divisions and lots of people claiming to be champions in every one of them, which can lead to serious information overload for anyone attempting to keep track of the ever changing absurdities. The existence of interim champions, super champions, diamond champions, green and gold champions, has made the sport about as complex as a herpes virus. The good news is with some common sense and some straightforward treatment of the subject matter, you will soon be able to determine whom the best fighters are regardless of the trinkets strapped around their waists. Of course, if you want me to take a dump in a box and call it a champion I will, I have spare time. However, it might be better if you looked past the face value of the boxing scene and realized that true champions are crowned in the ring and not by committee.

Aaron Lloyd



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