Despite promising a champion reduction plan, the WBA will crown a 26th champion in the super-welterweight division by the fall.
WBN understands that the collapse of Vergil Ortiz vs. Tim Tszyu will not deter the WBA from adding the belt to another fight shortly.
President Gilberto Mendoza had earned applause when eliminating all interim champions in 2021 as part of a significant reform. The move came after World Boxing News decided to become the first media outlet to declassify the WBA as a sanctioning body. The WBA had 55 champions across its 17 weight divisions at the time.
Once they removed those 24 interim and gold champions entirely, WBN brought the WBA back into the fold as the fourth sanctioning body. However, they are now reigniting bad habits.
The WBA Gold title is back at the top of the rankings board, i.e., a recognized belt, despite the WBA removing the designation along with the interim belts. And after following the WBC in creating a bridgerweight division, the WBA will be halfway to their old benchmark once two more champions get crowned in the coming months.
Bridgerweight and the 154-division will make it 27 champions following the decision to award Michael Hunter the gold belt at heavyweight earlier this month.
As the World Boxing Association continued its polarizing acts, they faced a one-word response from World Boxing Organization President Paco Valcarcel over their current title growth.
Valcarcel stated, “Unbelievable!’ when hearing the addition of more and more belts. It seems the WBA cannot help themselves when creating and designating meaningless titles at will.
DAZN analyst Sergio Mora made another interesting point when he posted about boxers becoming champions in the modern age.
“I don’t know the exact percentage, but I would guess that over 90% of boxers will never win a real world title. No interim or secondary belt! I’m talking about beating a real world champion to become a world champion,” said Mora.
If tallying the number of boxers today, the percentage is much more significant, around 99.5%. There are over 25,000 boxers in the world right now, and less than 1% [250] will win a world title.
The WBA’s actions continue to dilute the waters, though and are once against getting to the point where they could find themselves under heavy fire from media and fans.
Four regular champions, two gold, and three interim say the downward spiral is underway again.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay. Learn more, read all articles from the experienced boxing writer, and follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
