WBC and WBA Reach Agreement on Division Names

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KSTAT124
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WBC and WBA Reach Agreement on Division Names

Post by KSTAT124 »

First of all, big deal. The WBC and the WBA have been using the same names for sixteen of the seventeen weight classes since the the WBA followed the WBC's lead and stopped using "junior" in division names. Their only "conflict" involved 105-pounders for whom the WBA used "minimumweights" and the WBC used "strawweights."

When I read the article linked here, I thought, "What the f*ck?" Then I checked the WBC's website and sure enough, that's where it originally appeared.

http://www.boxingscene.com/wbc-wba-reac ... mes--86282

http://wbcboxing.com/wbceng/news/3945-u ... -divisions

The article refers to the eight divisions in existence before the Walker Law created another six divisions in 1920 as the "original 8." The correct historical term is "traditional 8" but that's a minor problem. There were eight divisions before 1920 and what we called them is not important in comparison to the historical inaccuracies contained in the article and the misleading information it also contains.

The article states that three divisions were created after "the original 8" and that the WBC later introduced six other divisions as safety measures.

Say what? It's debatable whether these divisions were established for the safety of the fighters or for the increased number of sanctioning fees the WBC could collect. However, that's not what has me saying, "Say what?" It's the inaccuracies and the taking credit for "creating" that which already had been created that bothers the hell out of me.

(I see I'm going to be spending more time on this than I first anticipated.)

Heavyweight- Sullivan was the first "modern" heavyweight champion but the division's history can be traced back to the 1700s. Sullivan dethroned Ryan under the London Prize Ring Rules and then became the first world heavyweight champion to defend the title under the Marquess (or Marquis) of Queensbury rules (other fighters had fought under the latter rules before Sullivan but not in world heavyweight title bouts).

Light Heavyweight- correct

Middleweight- The Ring Record Book of 1986-1987 also lists Dempsey-Fulljames as the first world middleweight championship bout but the Cyber Boxing Zone lists that bout as being for "Lightweight Championship of America". The CBZ, though, does list Dempsey as being the world middleweight champion from 1884 until 1891 when he lost the title to Bob Fitzsimmons.

Welterweight- correct

Lightweight- McAuliffe won the vacant title in 1886 by knocking out Billy Frazier and successfully defended it against Gilmore in 1887.

Featherweight- Dixon was the third man to hold the world featherweight title. The first was Torpedo Billy Murphy who won the title earlier in 1890 (see Bantamweight).

Bantamweight- Both The Ring Record Book and the CBZ list Dixon-Wallace as being for the world featherweight title; BoxRec has it as being for the English bantamweight title. The Ring Record lists Hughey Boyle as the first bantamweight champion as the result of his December 24, 1887 KO-8 win over Tommy (Spider) Kelly. Kelly would later win the title from Chappie Moran in 1890. The CBZ lists the first lineal bantamweight champion as being Jimmy Barry who reigned from 1894 until his retirement in 1899. There were split titles even back then as The Ring lists Billy Plimmer (1892-1895) and Pedlar Palmer (1895-1899) as holding the world bantamweight title during that period.

Flyweight- Again, there are differing opinions regarding the start of the flyweight division. The Ring Record Book has Barry winning it in 1897 but never defending it. The next world flyweight title bout, according to The Ring, took place in 1913 with Sid Smith winning a referee's decision over Enrique Criqui after 20 rounds. Wilde won the title from Joe Symonds in February of 1916. His bout with Young Zulu Kid was his fourth title defense. The CBZ has Wilde possibly winning a version of the world flyweight title in 1914 and losing it in 1915. The CBZ too has Wilde winning the title by beating Symonds and has the bout with "Young" Zulu Kid as being his fourth defense of either his only reign or second reign if his win over Eugene Husson in 1914 was for a world title. It should be noted that the CBZ lists Wilde as becoming the lineal champion in 1916.

OK- that's that for the eight pre-Walker Law divisions. The Walker Law, passed in New York in 1920, besides setting many regulations for the sport, created, as mentioned previously, six additional divisions- the junior middleweight, junior welterweight, junior lightweight, junior featherweight, junior bantamweight, and junior flyweight divisions. Only three were actually had inaugural title bouts in the 20s:

Junior Featherweight- On September 21, 1922, Jack (Kid) Wolfe outpointed Joe Lynch to become the division's first world champ. Wolfe was dethroned by Carl Duane in 1923. Duane never defended the title which remained dormant until the WBC reinstituted the division in 1976.

Junior Lightweight- Dundee vs. Chaney as listed in the WBC's article (as the first Super Featherweight title bout which it was but not under that name)

Junior Welterweight- as stated in the article, Myron (Pinky) Mitchell was proclaimed champion in 1922 as the result of a poll conducted by The Boxing Blade. The CBZ, like the WBC's article, lists Mitchell as losing the title in his first defense to Mushy Callahan in 1926 but The Ring has Mitchell losing the title to James (Red) Herring in 1925 and Herring losing it to Callahan later that year. According to The Ring, when Callahan outpointed Mitchell in 1926, Callahan was the defending champion.

As for the other three divisions created by the Walker Law:

The junior middleweight division was approved by the NBA (later to be the WBA) in 1956 but it wasn't until 1962 that world title bouts for the division were held. On October 17, 1962, reigning world welterweight champion Emile Griffith outpointed Teddy Wright in a bout sanctioned by the Austrian Boxing Board of Control and three days later, Denny Moyer outpointed Joey Giambra in a bout sanctioned by the WBA.

The junior bantamweight division, as the WBC article points out, was established, as the super flyweight class, by the WBC in 1980. The WBA followed in 1981.

The junior flyweight division was also, as the article points out, established by the WBC in 1975 with the sanctioning body holding its first title bout for the weight class in April of that year. ( The WBA held its inaugural world title bout for the class in August of 1975.)

As for the other weight classes:

The WBC was the first of the sanctioning bodies to establish a cruiserweight division and the first to sanction a world cruiserweight title bout but the super middleweight and mini-flyweight (minimumweight, strawweight) classes were already active by the time the WBC sanctioned title bouts for those divisions.

The first world title bout for the super middleweight division, then called the junior light heavyweight class, was held in Utah in 1967 between Don Fullmer (Gene's brother) and Joe Hopkins. Fullmer, who won, never defended the title and it wasn't until 1974 that another title bout for the division was held with Billy Douglas (Buster's dad) beating Danny Brewer. Douglas also never defended the title. In 1982, the World Athletic Association, the Pat O'Grady (Sean's dad)-Champ Thomas creation, sanctioned a title bout for the division between Jerry Halstead and Ronnie Brown. Halstead won and made one defense before outgrowing the division.

On March 28 1984, the IBF held its first world super middleweight title bout with Murray Sutherland outpointing Ernie Singletary over 15 rounds. Sutherland lost the title to Chong-Pal Park in his first defense and Park held the title until 1987 when he voluntarily relinquished it to fight in the WBA's first super middleweight title bout (Park won.)

The first world title bout sanctioned by the then fledgling WBO was held on November 4, 1988. It was for their super middleweight title and it was won by Thomas Hearns who outpointed James "The Heat" Kinchen over 12 rounds. The WBC's first super middleweight title bout (Leonard-Lalonde) was held three days later.

The minimumweight class, called the mini-flyweight class by the IBF and the WBO and formerly called the strawweight class by the WBC, has first created by the Thai Boxing Commission in 1984. The IBF held its first world title bout for the division on June 14, 1987 with Kyung-Yung Lee knocking out Masaharu Kawakami in the second round. The WBC's first title bout for the division was held four months later.
KSTAT124
TTR Rankings & Results Editor
TTR Rankings & Results Editor
Posts: 23953
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:22 pm
Location: Valley Stream, New York

Re: WBC and WBA Reach Aggreement on Division Names

Post by KSTAT124 »

I originally posted the above in the "Boxing & General Discussions" section but, because of the information regarding boxing history it contains, I decided to copy it and post it here as well.

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