There are too many alphabet belts in professional boxing, and this unfortunate fact discourages many potential new fans from taking an interest in the sport.
The WBA officially appeared in its modern form in August 1962, an offshoot of the organization formerly known as the NBA. The heavyweight champion at that time was Floyd Patterson. Patterson would lose the world heavyweight championship to Sonny Liston, who would then lose the crown to Muhammad Ali in February 1964. Ali was stripped of the WBA portion of the heavyweight championship when he signed for a rematch. immediate match against Liston, which finally happened May of the following year. Ernie Terrell won the vacant WBA belt by defeating Eddie Machen in March 1965.
This is the beginning of a historic trend where the WBA heavyweight title is often not in the hands of the legitimate heavyweight world champion. Ali would eventually regain the WBA belt, which should have belonged to him, when he defeated Terrell in February 1967. But the WBA record of lineage matching was poor in the 1960s. They got back on track in the 1970s, but strayed from the right path throughout most of the 1980s, a significant part of the 1990s, nearly all of the 2000, and even parts of the previous decade in the 2010s. During that particularly underwhelming period of over 25 years, the WBA continued to water the boxing championship landscape when they invented the WBA super belt. Worse still, after the invention of the WBA super belt, the shady organization still tries to strip their “regular” WBA belt as a “big” world title.
The weight class has always been a required weight class in boxing. And the #1 complaint about boxing is that there are too many alphabet belts, and this causes confusion for fans who become disinterested because of all the political nonsense that comes with hideous territory. that disgusting. This edition of Rummy’s Corner will provide a quiz on the history of the WBA heavyweight championship and why this serves as a perfect example of why the numerous alphabet belts have ruined professional boxing. industry for many decades.
