When a Champion isn’t a Champion

By Jamie Eskdale - 11/11/2013 - Comments

By Jamie Eskdale: To Win a boxing world title is supposed to be the pinnacle of ones’ career. A defining night which should signal to the world that you are the real deal and amongst the elite in the division.

So why does it feel that in an era where there or just so many of these titles that the meaning is just so diluted that it is nothing more than a ploy for sanctioning fees?

Recently in Russia we had IBF/IBO/WBO and WBA world champion Wladimir Klitschko take on WBA world champion Alexander Povetkin. Now bear with me here as I try to break this down.

How can Povetkin be WBA world champion when Klitschko won said title by beating David Haye?

Well here’s the explanation for those not in the know.

Upon winning the WBA REGULAR title against David Haye, Klitschko was elevated to SUPER Champion status as he is a unified champion, thus making the regular version vacant!!

Now call me old fashioned but in an era where there are already a minimum of 4 world titles available in any weight division at one time why on earth would there be any reason to create any more?
You can probably tell where I am heading with this and yes the obvious answer is because of cold hard cash.

By creating another title the WBA can earn more money in sanctioning fees. So in making out they are rewarding a unified champion a grand title they are in fact creating another title to bestow on a fighter who perhaps normally wouldn’t be worthy of world honours.

The result is an absolute farce.

In the Super Bantamweight division Guillermo Rigondeaux is universally recognised as the true champion of the division. In only his 9th fight he beat Rico Ramos to win the WBA title. In his 12th fight he unified against Nonito Donaire and added the WBO and The Ring belts to his collection thus elevating him to WBA super champion status.

This meant the regular version of his title became vacant and allowed Britain’s Scott Quigg to claim the belt as he was the interim champion.

Now I have nothing personal against Scott Quigg, he strikes me as a decent level headed kid who has a decent future in the game. However this does not detract from the fact that Rigondeaux would most likely school him, and here’s the problem.

If Rigondeaux is the real WBA champ how can an inferior fighter in Quigg also call himself WBA world champion?

It isn’t Quigg’s fault it is the fault of the WBA who are motivated by dollar signs and nothing more.

Log onto their website and look at the abundance of titles available per division, it is absolutely breath taking.

You have super champion, regular champion, interim champion, intercontinental champion and international champion. All demanding sanctioning fees for title fights and eliminator to fight for the right to contest the title.

We even had the ridiculous situation earlier in the year of both Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Saul Canelo Alvarez both being WBA super champion at the same time.

All of this is absolutely absurd and makes a mockery of the sport and until there is some sort of government interference the situation will only get worse.

This sort of thing is turning fans off in their droves and I for one would love to see the end of it.

It’s a sad state of affairs when you actually yearn for the good ol’ days when there were ‘only’ 4 Champions per division.



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