World Boxing Association
| World Boxing Association
WBA |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| sport | Boxing |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Place of foundation |
 Rhode Island
|
| president |
 Gilberto Mendoza
|
| Association headquarters |
 Panama City
|
| Homepage | www.wbanews.com |
The World Boxing Association (WBA) is a boxing association that organizes official fights and awards the WBA world championship in professional boxing. Previously known as the National Boxing Association , the WBA changed its name in 1962. It is the oldest of the major boxing associations recognized by the IBHOF , the other three are the International Boxing Federation , the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization .
origin
The origin of the WBA can be traced back to the US National Boxing Association (called NBA ), which was founded in 1921. The first fight recognized by the organization was the heavyweight title fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier in the US state of New Jersey . At the time, the world was recovering from World War I and many athletes had joined the military to fight for their country. Boxing became a popular entertainment sport there. Promoter Tex Rickard , an NBA benefactor and the Don King of his day, helped set up a number of title fights, particularly Jack Dempseys, some of which went down in boxing history.
The NBA was founded by representatives from thirteen American states to counterbalance the influence of the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) in the boxing world. Often the NBA and NYSAC crowned different world champions in the same category, which led to confusion.
Since Tex Rickard died unexpectedly of appendicitis in 1931 , the NBA had to rely more on its world champions and marketed them as show stars so that their names would save the business.
This was followed by the world championship years of Joe Louis , who won the title in 1937 and held it until 1949. With him as a figurehead, the NBA and professional boxing found their way through the next war. Louis and the world champions of the other weight classes kept coming back to the United States during their war missions to defend their titles. This made the NBA world champions appear heroic and patriotic.
As boxers returned to the States in the 1950s, new talent emerged, and more people had televisions, boxing became increasingly popular. In 1962, the NBA officially changed its name to WBA ( World Boxing Association ).
Competing organizations
The WBC , which was founded in the 1960s, was the main opponent of the WBA until the 1980s, especially when it presented an independent heavyweight world champion in 1978 with Ken Norton . The conqueror of Norton, Larry Holmes , was subsequently able to beat ex-WBA title holder Muhammad Ali , and the WBC received legitimacy.
To make matters worse, there was no long reigning WBA heavyweight champion in the 1980s. John Tate was defeated by Mike Weaver , Michael Dokes , this in turn Gerrie Coetzee , who had already lost to Tate and quickly lost to Greg Page , who immediately gave the title to Tony Tubbs , who was defeated by Tim Witherspoon , who lost to James Smith .
In 1983 the IBF was founded , which had a well-known heavyweight in Larry Holmes.
In 1988, the WBO was established, followed by almost a dozen other associations.
Controversy
In 1982, many WBA world championship fights ended in controversy or tragedy. On November 12th of the year there was a fight for the light welterweight title between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello . A controversial bottle with contents unknown to this day was smuggled into the Pryor ring corner after twelve rounds, and the WBA insisted on a rematch. The next day Ray Mancini defended his lightweight world title against Kim Duk-koo , who died five days later from the consequences of the hard hits he had to take during the fight. On December 10th of the same year referee Joey Curtis broke off a heavyweight title fight between challenger Michael Dokes and world champion Mike Weaver after 63 seconds. He later testified that he was influenced by Kim's death. A rematch was immediately decided.
Super champion
In recent years the WBA has come up with a new concept called Superchampion . A WBA Superchampion is listed when a boxer combines a WBA title with at least one other title of a rival (WBC, IBF and WBO) in the same weight class . Such multiple titleholders are commonly referred to as Unified Champions . If a boxer has become super champion, his / her actual / regular title will be revoked. Then two boxers will be determined who will box for the vacant regular WBA world championship title. Both the status of the unified and that of the super champion are ranked higher than that of the regular. Therefore, the regular WBA world champion, if there is also a unified or super champion, is not the “real” world champion. Instead of the usual nine months, the superchampions have 18 months to prepare for a title defense. Since they defend at least twice the number of titles, according to the WBA they should have twice the time to prepare for a fight as compensation.
WBA title
- Continental Champion (WBA Continental Champion)
- Intercontinental Champion (WBA Inter-Continental Champion)
- Continental America Champion (WBA Continental Americas Champion)
- International Champion (WBA International Champion)
- Oceanic Champion (WBA Oceania Champion)
- Pan-African Champion (WBA Pan African Champion)
- Interim World Champion (WBA Interim Champion)
- Regular World Champion (WBA World Champion)
- Undisputed World Champion (WBA Super Champion)
- WBA Fedebol Champion
- WBA Fedecaribe Champion
- WBA Fedecentro Champion
- WBA Fedelatin Champion
Violation of own regulations
The WBA violated its own regulations on January 5, 2016: The American Andre Ward , who was WBA super-champion in super middleweight, rose to light heavyweight , making this title vacant. Thereupon the WBA named Tschudinow, since he was regular world champion, superchampion and upgraded the rematch between Vincent Feigenbutz and the Italian Giovanni de Carolis to the regular world championship fight (De Carolis won this fight against Feigenbutz on January 9, 2016 by TKo in round 11) .
laying
Gilberto Mendoza was President of the WBA from 1982. In the 1990s, the boxing organization moved its headquarters from Panama City ( Panama ) to Caracas ( Venezuela ). Since 2007 the seat is again Panama. The WBA also has a second headquarters in Turmero in Venezuela.
See also
- Organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame
- International Boxing Federation
- World Boxing Council
- World Boxing Organization
- List of world boxing champions of the NBA
- List of world boxing champions of the WBA
- List of reigning boxing world champions
Web links
- WBA official website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harry Mullan: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing . Carlton Books, London 1996, ISBN 0-7858-0641-5 , pp. 121 .