A decade in, WBA President Gilberto Mendoza Jnr takes stock

ORLANDO, Florida – Gilberto Mendoza Jnr begins his 10th year as president of the World Boxing Association in 2025, a year likely to feature increased cooperation among sanctioning bodies and promoters, more opportunity for female fighters and plans for major bouts.

Minutes after officially opening his WBA convention on Saturday at the Caribe Royale resort, Mendoza sat down with BoxingScene for an extended conversation about the state of the sport, how he views his role, the WBA’s sponsorship by Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season and his view on rankings and crowning so many champions.

BoxingScene: You just finished delivering a special recognition to Puerto Rican great Felix “Tito” Trinidad and were surrounded on stage by active and retired greats. I’d imagine you hold on to moments like these closer than the everyday business of the presidency with folks jockeying for position, favor and benefit?

Gilberto Mendoza Jnr: I was just asked what the sport of boxing means to me, and the word that comes to mind is “family.” Being around these fighters and the collection of memories from the days I was learning boxing as a supervisor, and before that as an attorney and civil engineer, I just recall observing everything they did. And every time I had a personal challenge or some type of adversity, I would remind myself, “You’ve got 10 seconds to recover. You’re getting a standing eight count, and then you re-think.” It got me through personal troubles, divorce, sickness, my pursuits, [the death of] my father [and former WBA president Gilberto Mendoza Snr]. This is what makes me happy. The other part of what I do, I call it the yin-yang. So it doesn’t bother me.

More than being lobbied by certain entities or enterprises, being bound to one television [network], or being asked to work closest with one promoter, as it was in the past when there wouldn’t be equality among business and fighter interests, what we represent now is targeting that equality. That is our model.

Things are shifting in the sport. For the better. We have more fights. We still need more unity.

BS: You’ve made a point of inviting new World Boxing Organization President Gustavo Olivieri to your convention. That’s part of what you’re alluding to?

Mendoza: Yes, I give importance to that, and to [gatherings] like this. I want to be open to thinking outside the box, to look at protecting a fighter not protected by the industry. That’s what sanctioning bodies are for. Saudi Arabia has brought us the best fights ever, which I love, and I love what Turki’s doing. I would love to meet with him to discuss developing the programs I have, like “Future Champions,” “KO Drugs.” Dreams become stalled or neglected if we’re not giving many the opportunity to be a champion. Those [star champions] making the highlights, being in the spotlight is great, but we need to work for the rest because boxing is worldwide.

That’s one of the challenges we’re facing right now. This is a short career. Fighters are running everywhere they can for the most purses. The others are suffering. And I would point to it as a crisis, what’s going on in amateur boxing with [amateur organizations] working separately, with no Olympic committee making decisions to clarify anything, as we hear, “Boxing is going to disappear from the OIympics and that’s going to kill boxing.” We want to keep boxing in the Olympics, knowing from Oscar De La Hoya, [Muhammad] Ali, [George] Foreman that the gold medal means something to the professional rankings. These days, we talk about [a fighter’s social media] followers and viewers. We’re switching. Everything is changing.

BS: You advocate for tournaments of prospects and top contenders. Can this become reality? How would such a scenario operate?

Mendoza: We worked with [WBC President] Mauricio Sulaiman to make [the Feb. 1 winner of unbeaten light heavyweights] David Morrell Jnr and David Benavidez as our joint mandatory to the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol winner. There’s a lot we need to sit down and structure, because I have a plan. We go to places where boxing usually doesn’t go – Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina – and put some money in to improve purses. Because of that, through our “Future Champions” program, [fighters] will think twice about leaving the sport. So I accept Turki [and the Riyadh Season sponsorship dollars] with open arms.”

BS: What does Turki Alalshikh get by sponsoring the WBA (in a one-year renewable deal for $408,000)? Is he trying to consolidate divisions to a singular champion, to lean on the WBA to provide that one belt? Or do you foresee him pursuing that same mission by elevating the importance of “The Ring” lineal belt now that he has purchased that magazine?

Mendoza: I want to become the lucky guy, but I think we [as sanctioning bodies] all need each other. We had 400 WBA-sanctioned worldwide fights this year. That was 800 opportunities per year. Multiply that by four [sanctioning bodies], that’s 3,200 opportunities. If we just made one belt, you make everything difficult for the rest of the fighters.

BS: Are you convinced Alalshikh is on board with that given his push to stage undisputed heavyweight and light heavyweight bouts?

Mendoza: We would like to have a close relationship. Sometimes, he’s in the middle of so many things – he’s the minister of entertainment [in Saudi Arabia] – but our plan is to propose to work together with [Alalshikh] as a pillar. In boxing, money’s not everything.

At this, BoxingScene’s interviewer asked no question but raised an eyebrow.

Mendoza: [Money’s] a big factor to support the welfare of boxers and their careers. But there’s the tradition of the WBA being the oldest commission. I understand people might see competition between the WBC and WBA, but there’s no competition at all. We try to work together while trying to sustain ourselves. At the same time, you have promoters trying to make something they believe will work out, but sometimes that doesn’t work out with the competition. You have to make hard decisions against the wishes of your friends. That’s tough.

BS: I can recall us chatting several years ago, when it was brought up that keeping two champions in several divisions was ridiculous and seemingly a double-dipping money. You vowed to clean that up, and now are down to two divisions with two champions, heavyweight Kubrat Pulev and light heavyweight Morrell, while boasting the top fighters in the world [Oleksandr Usyk, Beterbiev, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue]. Yet, you still have three interim champions. Are all of these belts necessary?

Mendoza: I would like to know why, because we are an important organization, why we are in the spotlight over every decision we make? Sometimes, the press has been hard on the WBA and me. The Twitter guys get me crazy.

Mendoza: Perhaps you work to get extra compensation [and the WBA on Saturday reported that 67 per cent of its $6.08 million in 2024 revenue was generated by sanctioning fees, with Mendoza earning a $600,000 salary] but [the public] don’t ask you what you do with it. We [invest nearly $1 million annually in our] “Future Champions” academies, our “KO Drugs” cards in Latin America.

The way boxing is going right now, we need to find a path. I would like my future champions to be part of a boxing league and for that league to make money, to build an ecosystem where we can govern the sport for real. For example, Bivol and Beterbiev were going to reconsider their rematch. And then Turki stepped in. That’s one fight. What will we do [in other cases]? Morrell waited forever for Canelo. The organizations can work together [in a league] – not competing with promoters – but do a small league with young females and males. I have it ready to go, [complete with a] points system. But I don’t have the funds. It’s a huge concept. It’s not to compete with anybody. It’d open the doors for others. I see it when I do these fights in Venezuela and Colombia. With more sponsorship, we can do this to develop fighters and improve their medical [scrutiny].

BS: The sport thrives with cooperation and is diminished by splintered side-taking.

Mendoza: It’s hard. But I think something is going on well with the WBO now, then the IBF, and that will open the door for Mauricio and I to be a little less competitive.

BS: You’re doing rankings meetings this weekend, and I know I could go down your list and say, ‘How is this guy ranked higher than those guys? Abass Baraou at No. 1 at 154 pounds over former titleholder Israil Madrimov and Vergil Ortiz Jnr, for instance. Is there a criteria to how your rankings work?

Mendoza: We do have a manual we try to follow, but it’s a little bit old – from 1978. We have a points system, added external advice from influential boxing people, and there’s a part we cannot deny that you have to work with a promoter who’s going to work with you. That’s how the fights happen. That’s where the criticism comes. That’s where boxing makes it harder. I think we come to a dead end when that happens. But we do have a new point system that works. We have to do it on a trial basis, like with the league. I’m not going to lie: The way it’s done now needs to change. If a promoter has a good fighter and you know he won’t work with the WBA, you have to rate that guy to fill a space when he’s not going to fight. You send him a letter. The fighter says he won’t fight. It must change from side to side – not only us, promoters.

Mendoza: With all these new opportunities we’re getting, the fighters getting these big fights, I don’t know if fighters will get more greedy or take more chances.

BS: You named Jake Paul your promoter of the year. Would you consider placing him in your cruiserweight rankings?

Mendoza: Well, he wants to earn everything. Jake Paul doesn’t want any favors. I would think about it and propose it to the championship committee. His company, his charisma, the way he treats female fighters – it’s really made a positive impact on boxing and it’s why we recognized him. I would propose he fight in a regional championship. Not a world championship. People misunderstood what I said when I discussed him fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr – I said it’d be for a regional championship. After that, we can talk about ranking or not ranking him.

Let’s be honest: Jake, in this current world, if they make him a big offer, he’ll get a title shot. He just filled Cowboys Stadium, put [Mike] Tyson back in the ring. My advice for him has been to move step by step, and that’s what he’s done. I would suggest he fight for a regional championship. We can see if he’s ready for that, whether he gets ranked and then show me one more thing. For now, he hasn’t requested it. If he needs to request it, we’ll see.

BS: Looking to 2025, do you expect two of your champions to meet, Canelo Alvarez versus Terence Crawford?

Mendoza: I don’t like that fight. Maybe at the end of 2025, but Crawford just moved up [in August] from welterweight, and now he’s going to go all the way up to super middleweight? I’m an old-timer. The jump of weight classes is hard. Let’s go one at a time and see how it feels. I’m not taking anything from Crawford. If he can do it, it’d be super-human, but going up in weight several classes against one of the best fighters in the world today, our sport is based on divisions.

People love the fight, but to me, it’s a challenge because, yes, we know both fighters are good. But to go from super welter to super middle, maybe let’s look at Terence at middleweight. But boxing has changed. He gets a lot of money in one fight, wants to make the big fights. I understand his position. Maybe it works, shows all his ability, but maybe he feels the weight difference. Sparring at 168 is not fighting at 168. As president, it’s a challenge. It’s a big fight, and the fans want to see it. But it might also force the Benavidez-Morrell fight winner to wait again.

BS: What other fights would you like to see?

Mendoza: I’d like to see Inoue, when he moves up to featherweight, fight [WBA featherweight champion] Nick Ball. To think of a guy who was minimumweight champion go all the way up to face a guy who’s hard to stop. A fight with Inoue and [Japan’s bantamweight champion] Junto Nakatani would also be a great, huge fight. I’d like to see “Tank” Davis fight Shakur Stevenson or Devin Haney. I believe Tank Davis will be the face of boxing if he doesn’t retire. Look around the divisions there – you have Tank, Ryan Garcia, Haney, Teofimo Lopez. These names move the sport. Keyshawn Davis. Lots of talent. I’m surprised about him talking retirement in 2025. There’s a lot of big fights out there for him. I invited him here. I would also like to see a [welterweight unification] between Eimantas Stanionis and Mario Barrios.

BS: You have a pressing issue with your junior featherweight title mandatory Murodjon “M.J.” Akhmadaliev demanding to be next for Inoue once Inoue’s postponed defense against Sam Goodman takes place Jan. 24. How will you proceed?

Mendoza: The winners have to fight. Inoue has 10 days to decide after his [Goodman] fight if he’ll fight Akhmadaliev or vacate the belt.

BS: Inoue could offer M.J. step-aside funds?

Mendoza: I’m not a fan of it. It’s too much. If they agree [to postpone their meeting after one more fight, a possible Inoue April bout in Las Vegas], it’s very difficult to go against them.

BS: So you’re on M.J.’s side here?

Mendoza: I believe so. I think he’s earned his right.

BS: What is the ultimate truth you want to emphasize about the work of the WBA?

Mendoza: I have fighters working with me, using their expertise, and we are a positive organization that likes to give back to the sport through social programs. You can tell me I’m greedy, that I want more sanctioning fees, but we try to balance all we do by protecting the fighters and being transparent. We don’t work with just one promoter. We want to work with all promoters. We want to represent fighters, and we put passion into the sport.