World Boxing Association chiefs remain vigilant in the fight against continually polarizing the fans regarding the number of champions.
Gilberto Jesus Mendoza – the president of the WBA, once told World Boxing News back in 2013 that he would reduce the sheer volume of titleholders.
Eight years later, and when the situation never changed but only got worse, WBN made the drastic move to devalue the WBA as a sanctioning body.
Many fans cheered the move and urged other media outlets to do something similar. Within seven months, Mendoza had made a massive u-turn on policy.
In early August 2021, he promised to begin the title reduction process and began delivering quickly. It only took two months for WBN to see that Mendoza was serious.
Therefore, in October 2021, WBN reinstated the WBA because they continued to seek one champion per division.
Fast forward another three months, and the WBA already has seven categories with a unified champion and only 28 champions in total.
When the process began, the WBA had over 50 champions and had the boxing world tearing its hair out.
WORLD BOXING ASSOCIATION CHANGES
Explaining their process, the WBA said: “The first measure was to eliminate all interim titles and remove the gold from the world championship status and request mandatory bouts or box-offs.
“The process has been fulfilled with bouts such as Erik Rosas vs. Victorio Saludar in Minimum, Luis Concepción vs. Arten Dalakian in Flyweight, or Jamal James vs. Radzhab Butaec, to cite several examples.
“Although it has not been an easy job, a firm hand has been kept throughout the process. We want to fulfill our promise so that the fans can see high-quality fights like those that have watched this year.
“As a result, we have managed to reduce the number of champions by 51.85%. We have 41% of the categories with only one champion.
“There is still a long way to go, but President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza has affirmed that he will keep his commitment to fulfilling what he has promised.”
Once complete, boxing will be well on the way to title belt repair.
It’s been a long time coming.
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