Busted: The Story of the International Boxing Federation

One of the reasons why boxing remains so confusing even to its fans is that, unlike baseball or soccer, there is no one world organization governing the function of its functions as a truly international sport. Instead, there are no less than four major organizations - the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO - and a plethora of minor and insignificant ones. Among them, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) stands as unique. It was the first real splinter group, forming because of dispute within an already established organization, and it is the only one of the major organizations to be headquartered in the United States (the others operating out of Latin American countries). It is because of its American base that it is also the only one of the "alphabet soup" sanctioning organizations to be taken over by the U.S. government in response to its corrupt practices.

For a review of what a sanctioning body like the IBF does or is supposed to do in professional boxing, please see my previous article on the World Boxing Association (WBA).

Bobby Lee Takes His Football and Goes Home

The story of the IBF begins with Bob Lee, President of the WBA's regional subsidiary for the United States, the USBA. At the WBA's 1983 Convention, Lee lost his bid to replace Gilberto Mendoza as the organization's President. The result was that Lee and his supporters left the WBA, forming their own organization. The WBA replaced the USBA with new and near-meaningless regional body, the NABA. Under Bob Lee, the USBA eventually established itself in New Jersey as the IBF. The IBF thus became the third of boxing's sanctioning organizations (after the WBA and WBC), the first one to splinter off from another group, and the only one to hang its hat in the United States.

The IBF was the first to face the problem that has dogged anyone who has tried to set up a new "alphabet soup" since 1983: how to gain recognition as a legitimate organization? Organizations like the IBF live on their sanctioning fees, the money collected for issuing world titles to champions and setting up the fights over those titles. If an "alphabet soup" like the IBF cannot attract quality champions to fight over their titles, they also cannot get their titles involved in big money fights, and cannot collect big fees. Insignificant fights means small purses and thus petty sanctioning fees; big fights between well-known fighters means big purses and fat fees.

The IBF solved its problem by automatically recognizing the well-known, established champions of the day and simply issuing its distinctive red title belt to them (the new, minor group known as the IBO is doing the same thing in its quest for legitimacy, with less success). Key to the success of this strategy was the defection of Larry Holmes. Holmes had reigned as the WBC's champion since 1978, having defended that title 16 times. During the same period the WBA's heavyweight title had changed hands many times, sometimes between men that Larry Holmes had already beaten. That made Larry Holmes the real world champion in many minds, regardless of the belt he wore around his waist. Holmes was seeking to break his promotional relationship with Don King, with the problem being that his title belt was issued by an organization that functioned as little more than a junior partner of King's promotional company, the WBC. So, when the IBF offered Holmes their title belt, Holmes tossed happily tossed both the WBC's belt and Don King. The defection of a man of Larry Holmes's stature gave the IBF an enormous shot of credibility very early in its history, and all-but guaranteed the success of the organization. Thus the big two became the big three, with many champions building their careers with the IBF's red belt around their waist. Felix Trinidad, for example, captured the IBF's welterweight title in 1993, holding it for 9 1/2 years and defending it 15 times. Bernard Hopkins also built his career on the IBF's belt, first winning their middleweight title in 1995 and defending it 21 times in 10 years.

Questionable Practices

Like all the other alphabet soups, the IBF has been accused of corruption and flagrant disregard for its own rules. The result has been a handful of the bizarre stories so characteristic of professional boxing. For example, the IBF has been alleged to have had underhanded dealings with Colombian promotional interests for years, resulting in numerous unworthy Colombians being fed into IBF title fights so their management can collect a cut of the big pay day. Miguel Julio became the IBF's #1lightweight contender in 1995, and manditory challenger for Oscar de la Hoya. De la Hoya refused to fight Julio, giving up his IBF strap instead, saying the match would be an embarrassment. Julio was then trounced by the lower-ranked Philip Holliday of South Africa for the title, and never heard from again. Julio's manager, Ivan Feris Chadid, later swore to paying numerous bribes to the IBF to advance his fighters to big money title fights.

More recently, Zab Judah was scheduled to defend his undisputed welterweight title (Judah held the IBF, WBC and WBA belts at the time) against rising star Floyd Mayweather. However, he first had to defend against Argentine Carlos Baldomir. Judah, however, paid only the WBC's sanctioning fee, since Baldomir was their #1 contender. In a bizarre display of boxing politics, when Judah lost to Baldomir, the Argentine only won the WBC's title. The WBA, who had not been paid, declared their title vacant, which is in accordance with their rules. However, Judah's and Mayweather's management were desperate for their proposed match-up to be a world title fight, so the IBF out-sleazed the WBA by simply giving their title back to Judah, despite Judah having lost to Baldomir.

Busted!

The IBF stands as the only one of boxing's "alphabet soup" world sanctioning bodies to be held accountable for their dirty dealings in a court of law. In 1999, Bob Lee, who had served as the organization's only President since it split from the WBA 16 years before, was convicted of racketeering and accepting bribes, forcing his resignation. The IBF was taken over by the Federal government, and administered by them until 2004. That the IBF stands as the only sanctioning body to be penalized in this faction is directly tied to its being the only one to operate under American law enforcement and the American courts: the WBA, WBC, and WBO all hang their hats in more "flexible" Latin American countries.

However, even being taken over by the US government did not keep the IBF in the clean for long, as Bob Lee's successors have not shown much inclination to learn from his example. The IBF's inexplicable ruling that Zab Judah was still its champion after losing to Carlos Baldomir came in January 2006, less than two years after the Federal government relinquished control of the organization.