WBA’s meaningless gesture

It was the original major boxing organization. This was where we learned of legends like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Jack Dempsey, James Braddock, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and so many others. And those are just a few of the heavyweights. Nowadays, you look at their roster of champions and you ask “Who the hell are these guys?” And the list seems endless. No buzz, no compelling stories, no riveting rivalries, no connection with the fans.

A hundred years ago, the National Boxing Association was the pioneer in pro boxing promotion. Almost 40 years ago, it became the World Boxing Association. A little over 20 years ago, Lennox Lewis suggested they have separate belts for boxers who also have titles from other boxing organizations. That started the WBA’s slide into a quagmire of meaningless, watered-down, cash grab transitory titles. Super champion, regular champion, interim champion, gold champion, champion in recess; now a ceremonial “champion for life” in Manny Pacquiao. It’s a cheap, all you can eat buffet. Do you want fries with that?

It’s hypocritical that the same organization that stripped Pacquiao of his world welterweight championship for inactivity in the midst of a global pandemic, would now jump on the bandwagon after the world acknowledged his greatness as a boxer. This is, after all, the same entity that “elevated” Yordenis Ugas to super champion for no reason. They just seem to be clearing space for whoever would come along next. Now, they’re in trouble with the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports in the US. Why? The WBA has so many championships, they’ve all lost value. The ABC may decide to not allow them to hold fights in the United States. What an irony that would be: a century-old American boxing organization not allowed to stage bouts in its own country. They’ve risked their very existence for money, the sanctioning fees they get for each fight card held under their imprimatur.

Worst of all, for the interim welterweight fight between upstarts Mykal Fox (22-2-0) and Gabriel Maestre (4-0-0) on Aug. 7, one of Maestre’s cornermen was found to actually be a WBA employee. This was a clear case of conflict of interest. This is likely what propelled the association to announce that it would be scrapping all of its interim belts. They will also persuade all their super champions and regular champions to face off to determine a single champion for each weight class. Desperate, life-saving maneuvers, if there ever were any. We’ll see if they work.

The house-cleaning will take a while. There is no quick way to trim all the fat and streamline all the titles. The WBA has watered itself down to the point of being unrecognizable and frankly, meaningless. It’s a shame that they’re using Manny Pacquiao to gain some relevance with a symbolic belt that makes nobody champion of anything.