The World Boxing Association

Whenever a boxing fan complains about "politics," he invariably means the shenagins of either a big promoter, or an "alphabet soup," one of the major sanctioning bodies that issue regional and world titles. Whether it is ranking an utter non-entity as the #1 contender, creating a superfluous new weight division, or stripping a champion of his title, one of these "alphabet soups" is behind it, and the World Boxing Association (WBA) is the oldest of those bodies.

What Does a Sanctioning Body Do?

The fundamental purpose of a group like the WBA is to structure professional boxing at the world championship level. To do this, it sanctions title fights, often appointing the referee and judges, setting the rules for the bout, and resolving disputes stemming from a contested result. They recognize world champions in different weight divisions, establish those divisions and what the weight limits for them are, and create rankings to determine who the most worthy challenger for their titles will be, the "mandatory challenger," who is invariably the #1 contender in a given division. A sanctioning body usually requires their champion to defend his title against a mandatory challenger every 12-18 months. These bodies also hold purse bids to determine who will be allowed to promote a championship fight.

For these services, the sanctioning body collects a fee for those fights that it sanctions. Typically, those are title fights, but if the sanctioning group should declare a box-off to establish a mandatory challenger, then that fight is also sanctioned and liable for fees.

The History of the WBA

The oldest of the "alphabet soups," the WBA began life as the National Boxing Association (NBA), an alliance formed by boxing commissions from 13 states, who wanted to contest the influence of the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC). In the days before the rise of Las Vegas as a fight venue, all the big money fights were held in New York, giving that state boxing commission massive influence and standing. For decades, the NYSAC functioned as a sanctioning body in its own right, issuing its own world title. The NBA formed in 1921, and its first world title bout was the Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier heavyweight championship. Recognizing the growing place of foreign fighters in professional boxing, particularly in the lighter weight divisions, the NBA changed its name to the WBA in 1962.

The WBA originally functioned as an organization of state boxing commissions, much like the present Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC). While they did issue and withdraw world titles, and declare rankings and mandatory challengers, they did not impose officials on championship fights or collect sanctioning fees. Appointing officials were typically left to the state boxing commission hosting the fight (that commission was invariably a member of the WBA anyway). They also did not collect sanctioning fees, since the member commissions were paid for by their respective state governments. The WBA is no longer an association of state boxing commissions, although it does have regional organizations operating under its banner: Latin American Boxing Federation (FEDELATIN), the Pan Asian Boxing Association (PABA), the Bolivarian Boxing Federation (FEDEBOL) and the Central America Boxing Federation (FEDECENTRO), North America Boxing Association (NABA), and the Pan African Boxing Association (PFBA). However, these regional organizations function as local divisions of the WBA, and not as associations of indigenous local boxing authorities in the way that the ABC represents state, provincial, and tribal commissions in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1974, a pair of Panamanians, Rodrigo Sanchez and Elias Cordova, managed to stage something of a coup within the WBA, changing the rules so that a majority of the WBA's voting delegates now came from Latin American countries. The hitherto U.S. body now moved its headquarters to Latin America, first to Panama, then to Venezuela, and finally back to Panama. In 1982, Gilberto Mendoza was elected President of the WBA, and has held the office ever since. He is by far the longest serving President in the WBA's long history, and for all intents and purposes the WBA now functions de facto as his private company.

Corruption and Bad Business

Since moving its base to Latin America and becoming Mendoza's private fiefdom, the WBA has been regularly criticized for corrupt dealings and bizarre, money-grubbing practices. They have been repeatedly documented in the sports press for accepting bribes to rig rankings, stage title fights, and influence appointed judges and referees. However, by and large the WBA has been the least tainted of the major "alphabet soup" organizations.

Their most egregious sin in recent years has been the establishment of the so-called "super championship." According to WBA rules, when one of their champions captures the title of a rival organization, they become a "super champion." For example, the WBA has two such super champions at this time: Super Middleweight king Joe Calzaghe, who holds the WBA, WBC, and WBO titles; and Cruiserweight David Haye, who holds the WBA and WBC belts.

Being a "Super Champion" means two things. One is a fairly reasonable WBA rule that allows a super champion 18 months to make a mandatory defense against the WBA's #1 contender, instead of the usual 12. That flexibility gives a champion holding more than 1 belt some help in meeting the competing demands of multiple sanctioning bodies, each of whom may have their own mandatory challenger.

However, having a "super champion" also allows the WBA to crown another, regular world champion. In addition to Calzaghe and Haye, the WBA also now has regular world champions in those divisions in the form of Anthony Mundine and Firat Arslan. According to WBA rules, the regular champion becomes the mandatory challenger to the super champion, so he is essentially just the plain old #1 contender with a WBA belt around his waist. The only practical result of this ridiculous practice is to hold twice as many WBA-sanctioned fights, and therefore collect twice as many fees. It also confuses boxing fans, who have a difficult enough time keeping track of the champions of four different major "alphabet soups" without having one of them issue two world championships in the same weight division! It further convinces casual sports fans that boxing is all a corrupt farce, turning them away from the sport.

Sources: WBA Online, ABC Website, Wikipedia, Sports Illustrated