Longtime boxing enthusiasts have become accustomed to the incredible complexity of the bureaucratic machine that regulates and governs the Noble Art. New organizations pop up like mushrooms, titles with increasingly imaginative names, rules in constant evolution, often broken even by those who wrote them: a generalized chaos to which unfortunately even insiders contribute when, for their own benefit, they deceive less experienced fans about the value of a match, a title, or a ranking. It is not uncommon, therefore, to hear questions like: “Why isn’t there a single world champion per division?”, “How much is an ‘IBO world title’ worth?”, “What are the ‘Interim’, ‘Silver’, and ‘Franchise’ belts that we often hear mentioned?” Let’s try to answer these and other questions with this concise guide, hoping to bring some clarity for the benefit of newcomers.
The Split of World Titles: a Boxing Peculiarity
One of the most marked organizational differences between professional boxing and the vast majority of other individual sports is the simultaneous presence of multiple world champions, each proclaimed by a specific organization. The reason for this peculiarity is simple: while in other sports it is relatively simple to set up selection tournaments to crown an undisputed champion, in professional boxing, given the need to ensure adequate physical recovery between competitions, this is not possible, and to establish who deserves the “big chance,” it is necessary to resort to subjective rankings. Until the 1960s, these rankings were compiled by highly authoritative journalists and were universally accepted with few exceptions; nevertheless, unscrupulous managers and promoters were free to do as they pleased, and for a boxer, receiving the coveted world opportunity too often depended on factors beyond their performance in the ring. Consider the case of Ezzard Charles, kept waiting for so long among the light heavyweights that he changed weight class, or that of Jake LaMotta, forced to fix the match with Billy Fox in hopes of securing his chance.
The Four Sisters (WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO)
Although the WBC is generally considered the most prestigious among the world boxing organization, the oldest one is actually the WBA, founded under the name of NBA (National Boxing Association) in 1921 by the desire of thirteen American states eager to counter the growing power of the New York State Athletic Commission. Even then, disputes arose over the identity of the “true champion” of a given weight division. In 1962, the NBA changed its name to WBA, and a year later, the birth of the WBC gave rise to a duopoly that remained so for about twenty years. Only in 1983 did the IBF join the two leading sisters in the market, being the only one of the four to be based in the United States and having to adhere to stricter laws, it is considered the most serious in enforcing its rules. The story of the WBO is more recent, founded in 1988 by Puerto Rican Luis Batista Salas, which was initially the “Cinderella” of the boxing organizations: talented boxers who won its belt quickly vacated it to aim for more prestigious titles. Over the years, however, the WBO has managed to acquire equal status with the other three organizations, and today all four are recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
IBO: An Organization Living in Reflected Light
In Italy, there has been much talk recently about a fifth organization that until recently was not recognized by the Italian Boxing Federation (FPI), namely the International Boxing Organization. Let’s make a necessary premise: in countries with a great boxing tradition, this debate does not exist at all. The main international news sites such as ringtv.com or boxingscene.com often dedicate little more than a footnote to fights valid for the IBO title, deliberately omitting the word “World” to avoid confusing their readers. One of the most popular arguments among those who support the importance of this title is that it is currently held by famous athletes, but this argument, if examined closely, appears somewhat weak. None of the great champions has directly aimed at winning the IBO belt, considering it a goal: rather, it is the organization itself that “places” its title in those major events, already adorned with other titles, that can make it shine “by reflected light.” The actual importance of this belt (which at the time of writing this article is vacant in 6 out of 17 categories) is therefore closely related to the value of the opponent defeated to obtain it but cannot be compared to that of the four fundamental organizations.
The “Interim” Title: A Sensible Idea Turned into Absurdity
It often happens that an initiative by one of the world organizations is initially carried out with absolutely reasonable motivations, only to descend into absurdity. This is the case with the so-called “Interim” title, which was initially awarded when a world champion was unable to defend their belt within the times stipulated by the rules due to circumstances beyond their control, such as illness or injury. In these cases, it seems sensible to appoint a temporary champion while waiting for the titleholder to be ready to fight, and then have them face each other. Unfortunately, “Interim” titles soon began to be awarded from all sides without any impediment to keeping out the real champion, solely to appease the boxers involved and publicize events that are “world titles” in name only.
From “Super Champion” to “Franchise Champion”
Another case of a rule quickly broken by its own creators is that of the “Super Champion” of the WBA. The organization based in Panama invented this flashy-sounding recognition, claiming it would be awarded to boxers capable of unifying multiple world titles, so as to exempt them from the obligation of official defenses that would overlap with those of other organizations. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way, and several “super champions” haven’t unified anything. In categories where there is a super champion, therefore, the “simple” champions, dubbed “regular,” are second-rate holders: how can an athlete claim to be a world champion if even the organization that named them as such does not rank them first in its rankings? Since bad ideas often find followers, recently, the brilliant idea of the WBA was “copied” by Mauricio Sulaiman for the WBC, with the creation on similar grounds of the “Franchise” title.
Silver Title: Was there a need for it?
About a decade ago, the WBC added fuel to the fire with the creation of the “Silver” title. Although initially presented by the entity based in Mexico City as a simple replacement for the Interim title, in reality, the two recognitions soon began to coexist on the international scene. The Silver champion can be considered a sort of official challenger, although the timing of when they are granted the opportunity to fight for the world title is rather variable and apparently decided with total discretion by the organization. The masterpiece of masterpieces is then the “Interim Silver” title, rarely awarded and for mysterious reasons, whose value is essentially zero.
In this context, we overlook even more bizarre and paradoxical titles such as the WBA Gold or the WBC Diamond and do not delve into an analysis of national, regional, or continental recognitions to avoid weighing down the discussion too much: to describe and analyze all the belts with which our sport has to coexist would require a special manual and not just a simple in-depth article. However, we hope to have cleared up the most common misunderstandings encountered by those who start following international boxing.