The World Boxing Association Is the Real "Evil Empire"

Just when you thought a sanctioning body couldn’t sink any lower, the World Boxing Association (WBA) has found yet another level to sink to.

It's been an “interesting” last few weeks for the WBA and today’s announcement that No. 3-rated heavyweight John Ruiz has been named the mandatory challenger to the Nicolay Valuev–Ruslan Chagaev title fight is just a flat-out joke and makes one wonder whether or not the WBA is even attempting to be legitimate organization or just grabbing money and making up rules as they go along.

For starters, Ruiz has already lost to Valuev twice and was defeated in an eliminator against Chagaev in 2006, and is 2-3 in his last 5 bouts. How is this justification that he should leapfrog two-rated fighters (No. 1 Kali Meehan and No. 2 Taras Bidenko)? At the minimum, the WBA should have ordered Meehan-Bidenko to determine a mandatory challenger and Ruiz, slotted at No. 3, should have tried to arrange for a bout of his own against anyone the WBA has rated in the Top 10 to move back into position just to qualify for an eliminator.

If Bidenko and Meehan don’t appeal this decision, then I don’t even know what to think, and don’t blame Don King for this one, as he also promotes Meehan.

The WBA has already proven to be the most suspect of the various sanctioning bodies, with their various levels of champion status. This is the organization that brought us something called the “super champion”, in which they claim to elevate their titleholders to super champions when that champion unifies a title. Then they declare the “regular” title vacant and order the top two contenders to fight for the “regular” title. If you haven’t figured it out already, the WBA is able to collect twice the sanctioning fees by creating a new level of champion.

At one point, the WBA had three belt-holders in the same division when they somehow managed to declare one a “super champion”, while also having a “regular” champion and then they sanctioned an “interim” title fight because the “regular” champ was “unavailable” to defend his title.

If boxing had a central governing body, surely the WBA would be under investigation for fraudulent business practices, as Dan Rafael of ESPN.com has stated.  It gets even better now that tonight’s Juan Diaz–Juan Manuel Marquez bout has been sanctioned for the “super” champion status, which contradicts the very rules the WBA set forth originally.

If you’re confused by all of this, get in line. It's behavior like this that only serves to confuse, infuriate and turn off the average fan. Boxing is not dying, but the WBA is certainly not helping to promote the sport in a professional manner.