It was this week announced that Manuel Charr and Kubrat Pulev will meet in Bulgaria on December 7 for the WBA heavyweight title, a fortnight before Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury scrap it out again for three belts, including the WBA heavyweight title.
Hang on, queries new boxing fan, why are there two WBA heavyweight belts? Please, new boxing fan, if you’re to survive in this place you gotta stop asking sensible questions.
And here’s why.
The decision was made in July 2011 following a battle between WBA heavyweight boss David Haye and his IBF and WBO counterpart Wladimir Klitschko, who won conclusively on points, to elevate the Ukrainian to the status of ‘super’ champion because he then held titles from other rankings bodies, thus making the ‘regular’ championship vacant.
It is not believed that the WBA came up with the ‘regular’ tag – they preferred ‘world’ – but it was instead pained journalists, going balder by the second as they tried to explain the situation, who introduced it as means of deciphering between the two. Note: The regular title has also been known as the ‘secondary’ title and, in some published material, the ‘bogus’ title.
Alexander Povetkin and Ruslan Chagaev stepped forward as the willing challengers that November, paid their sanctioning fees and engaged in a forgettable 12-rounder for the regular/secondary/bogus belt, won by Povetkin. The Russian went on to make four defenses of the bauble against four fighters unranked at heavyweight by anyone besides the WBA (Cedric Boswell; cruiserweight Marco Huck; the 73-year-old Hasim Rahman; and Andrzej Wawrzyk). During that period, Klitschko defended the WBA super-duper title on four occasions, meaning, thanks to their decision to create another belt, the rankings body doubled their money in sanctioning fees in the heavyweight division alone.
In October 2013, Wladimir duly beat Povetkin via a lopsided decision and, hey presto, the regular/secondary/bogus strap was once again without an owner. Well, we simply must get this cleared up, said the WBA, and they nominated old favourite Chagaev and the 41-year-old Fres Oquendo to step up.
Chagaev beat Oquendo in July 2014, which was no surprise considering it had been 11 years since Fres had recorded a victory over an opponent widely recognized as a viable contender, but Ruslan – perhaps failing to see the bang for his buck – was stripped 20 months later for not paying $40,750 to the WBA in sanctioning fees.
In the meantime, Lucas Browne had knocked out Chagaev in 10 rounds to win the title, only to fail a drugs test and be forced to give it back. Chagaev, contractually obliged to give a rematch to the same Oquendo who by now was 13 years removed from his past world-class win, opted to do the smart thing and retire.
Yet again the WBA were left with one paltry WBA heavyweight champion (two if you include the ‘interim’ champ but, for the purpose of not banging own heads into brick walls, let’s not) and moved quickly to get the matter resolved. Oquendo, now 44, was matched with the 45-year-old Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs, fresh off his last gasp win over Siarhei Liakhovich in 2006, for the vacant title in June 2017. Briggs then failed a test for performance enhancing drugs.
Unperturbed by the latest sign that the bogus title was doomed, the WBA then plonked Mahmoud Charr and Alexander Ustinov together in November 2017. Combined age: 72. Combined wins over world-class opposition: 0. But don’t let the stats fool you – Charr would soon call himself a WBA heavyweight champion after outscoring Ustinov.
So Charr was then to face Oquendo – 45, four years inactive, and 15 years older than when he beat anyone decent – in September 2018.
The fight didn’t happen. Charr failed a test and was stripped of the title, only to find it back around his waist when a loophole regarding his B-sample was exploited. Charr-Oquendo was resurrected for April 2019.
Trevor Bryan was the latest to feel all of this was a just a trifle unfair. He had won the vacant interim trinket with victory over former cruiserweight fringe contender BJ Flores – by knockout, no less. Give me my freaking title shot, he screamed. It was ordered by the WBA in 2019, only for the pandemic to come along and put the entire planet into hibernation. Thankfully, the WBA regular/secondary/bogus heavyweight title survived.
In January 2021, with Charr embroiled in a legal wrangle with the WBA and Don King, the same promoter persuaded the sanctioning body to stage a contest between Bryan and Bermane Stiverne for the again-vacant strap. This might be the most ridiculous match-up of the lot. Stiverne was shot to bits, evidenced by being knocked out in one and six rounds by Deontay Wilder and Joe Joyce respectively in his most recent outings. Bryan would not have made it into any respected boxing observer’s Top 30. A real pick ‘em affair.
Bryan won in the 11th round, then notched a successful defense against Jonathan Guidry, who had never previously been in a contest scheduled for more than eight rounds.
Next up was Daniel Dubois, who found himself ranked at No. 2 following his knockout loss to the unranked Joyce. Dubois predictably mangled Bryan in four rounds and then halted the unheralded Kevin Lerena to secure a shot at Oleksandr Usyk. In the process, Dubois would be the first WBA regular/secondary/bogus heavyweight champion since Alexander Povetkin to gain a shot at the super-duper champion a decade before.
In August 2023, five days after Usyk halted Dubois in nine rounds, a court ruled that Charr should be reinstated as regular champion. On December 7, he will defend the title against the 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev.
Should it happen, it will be the 40th fight that the WBA have sanctioned for a ‘world’ heavyweight title, whether super, regular or interim, since July 2011.
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