World Boxing Association

World Boxing Association
Abbreviation	WBA
Motto	Simply the pioneers
Formation	1962
Purpose/focus	Boxing sanctioning organization
Region served	Worldwide
President	Gilberto Mendoza
Main organ	General Assembly
Website	wbanews.com

The World Boxing Association (WBA) is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962. It is the oldest of the major organizations recognized by IBHOF which sanction world championship boxing bouts, alongside the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization.

History

The original sanctioning body of professional boxing, the World Boxing Association can be traced back to the original National Boxing Association, organized in 1921; the first bout recognized by the organization being the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier Heavyweight Championship bout in New Jersey, USA.

The NBA was formed by representatives from thirteen American states to counterbalance the influence the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) wielded in the boxing world. This often meant that the NBA and the NYSAC crowned different world champions in the same division, leading to confusion about who was the real champion.^[1]

The International Boxing Research Organization describes the early NBA in this way: "Originally more comparable to the present American Association of Boxing Commissions than to its offspring and successor, the NBA sanctioned title bouts, published lists of outstanding challengers, withdrew titular recognition, but did not attempt to appoint its own title bout officials or otherwise impose its will on championship fights. It also did not conduct purse bids or collect 'sanctioning fees.'"^[2]

In 1962 the NBA, with the growth of boxing's popularity worldwide, changed its name to the World Boxing Association. The organization remained mainly American until 1974, however. In that year, two Panamanian boxing figures named Rodrigo Sanchez and Elias Cordova manipulated the WBA rules to give a majority of votes to nations in Latin America.^[3]

Gilberto Mendoza has been the President of the WBA since 1982. The WBA in the 1990s moved its central offices from Panama City, Panama, to Caracas, Venezuela. In January 2007 it moved its offices again to Panama.

Controversies

The WBA has been plagued with charges of corruption for years. In perhaps the most notable instance, promoter Bob Arum claimed in a 1982 interview that he had to pay off WBA officials to obtain rankings.^[3] In a 1981 Sports Illustrated article, a WBA judge claimed that he was influenced by the WBA president to support certain fighters. The same article also discussed a variety of bribes paid to WBA officials to obtain title fights or rankings with the organization.^[4]

The WBA also came under fire in the 1980s for allowing South Africans to fight for its titles.^{[citation needed]}

Regular titles and super titles

The WBA recognizes the title holders from the WBC, WBO and IBF organizations. The WBA refers to a champion who holds two or more of these titles in the same weight class as an "undisputed champion" or "super champion". This applies even if the WBA title is not one of the titles held by the "undisputed champion".^[5][6] In September 2008, Nate Campbell was recognized as lightweight "undisputed champion" for his WBO and IBF titles, while the WBA's own champion was Yusuke Kobori.^[7]

If one of the multiple titles held to earn the designation WBA Super Champion is the WBA's own title, then the fighter is promoted to Super Champion and their regular title becomes vacant for other WBA-ranked boxers to fight for. Thus, the WBA tables will sometimes show a WBA Super Champion and a WBA Regular Champion for the same weight class.

Sometimes it is possible for a regular champion to become super champion without adding another organization's title; Chris John is an example.

Current WBA world title holders

Male

Weight class:	Champion:	Reign began:
Minimumweight	Akira Yaegashi	October 24, 2011
Light flyweight	Roman Gonzalez	February 4, 2011
Flyweight	Hernan Marquez	April 2, 2011
Super flyweight	Tomonobu Shimizu	August 31, 2011
Bantamweight	Anselmo Moreno (Super Champion)	May 31, 2008
	Koki Kameda (regular champion)	December 26, 2010
Super bantamweight	Rico Ramos	July 9, 2011
Featherweight	Chris John (Super Champion)	November 1, 2003
	Celestino Caballero (regular champion)	October 14, 2011
Super featherweight	Takashi Uchiyama	January 11, 2010
Lightweight	Juan Manuel Márquez (Super Champion)	February 28, 2009
	Brandon Ríos (regular champion)	February 26, 2011
Light welterweight	Amir Khan (Super Champion)	July 18, 2009
	Marcos Maidana (regular champion)	July 23, 2011
Welterweight	Vyacheslav Senchenko	April 10, 2009
Super welterweight	Miguel Cotto (Super Champion)	June 5, 2010
	Austin Trout (regular champion)	February 6, 2011
Middleweight	Felix Sturm (Super Champion)	April 28, 2007
	Gennady Golovkin (regular champion)	October 2010
Super middleweight	Andre Ward (Super Champion)	November 21, 2009
	Karoly Balzsay (regular champion)	August 26, 2011
Light heavyweight	Beibut Shumenov	January 29, 2010
Cruiserweight	Guillermo Jones	September 27, 2008
Heavyweight	Wladimir Klitschko (super champion)	July 2, 2011
	Alexander Povetkin (regular champion)	August 27, 2011

Female

Weight class:	Champion:	Date won:
Strawweight (105 lbs)	vacant?
Junior flyweight (108 lbs)	vacant?
Flyweight (112 lbs)	Susi Kentikian	30 March 2007
Junior bantamweight (115 lbs)	vacant?
Bantamweight (118 lbs)	vacant?
Junior featherweight (122 lbs)	vacant?
Featherweight (126 lbs)	vacant?
Super Featherweight (130 lbs)	Kina Malpartida	21 February 2009
Lightweight (135 lbs)	vacant?
Junior welterweight (140 lbs)	vacant?
Welterweight (147 lbs)	Cecilia Brækhus	14 March 2009
Junior middleweight (154 lbs)	vacant?
Middleweight (160 lbs)	vacant?
Super middleweight (168 lbs)	vacant?
Light heavyweight (175 lbs)	vacant?
Cruiserweight (200 lbs)	vacant?
Heavyweight (200+ lbs)	vacant?

See also

Other world organizations

International Boxing Hall of Fame recognized

• International Boxing Federation
• World Boxing Council
• World Boxing Organization

Other organizations

• International Boxing Association
• International Boxing Council
• International Boxing Organization
• World Professional Boxing Federation & United States Boxing Council

Regional Organizations

• North American Boxing Council
• List of Commonwealth Boxing Council Champions

WBA affiliated organizations

• FEDELATIN
• Pan Asian Boxing Association (PABA)
• European Boxing Association (EBA)
• North American Boxing Association (NABA)

Transition of WBA titles

• List of WBA world champions
• List of WBA international champions
• List of WBA Fedecentro champions
• List of WBA Fedelatin champions
• List of WBA Pan African champions
• List of WBA female world champions

External links

• WBA official homepage
• All-time WBA World champions – Reference book

References

1. ^ Mullan, Harry (1996). The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing. London, England, UK: Carlton Books. pp. 121. ISBN 0785806415. 
2. ^ "Boxing Bodies: A Brief Chronology and Rundown". International Boxing Digest 40 (1): 58. January 1998 
3. ^ ^{a b} Mullan. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing. pp. 122. 
4. ^ Heller, Peter (1988). Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story. New York, New York: New American Library. pp. 141–142. ISBN 0688101232. 
5. ^ "Super championships guidelines". WBA. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20080605184309/http://www.wbaonline.com/wchampionships/SuperChampionship.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
6. ^ "WBA Super Championships". WBA. http://www.wbanews.com/artman/publish/campionshipSuperChampions/index.shtml. Retrieved 2009-02-11. 
7. ^ "Official Ratings as of September 2008". WBA. September 2008. p. 2. http://www.wbaonline.com/ratings/rankings/2008/wba0908.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-14. ^{[dead link]}