Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, president of the World Boxing Association (WBA), in an interview with ESPN, in early August 2021 promised to begin the title reduction process and has delivered. There are already 7 categories with Unified Champion and 28 champions.
When the process began the WBA had 54 champions: 10 interim, 12 gold, 16 champions and 16 super champions. The first measure was to eliminate all interim titles and remove the gold from the world championship status and request mandatory bouts or box-offs.
The process has been fulfilled with bouts such as Erik Rosas vs Victorio Saludar in Minimum, Luis Concepción vs Arten Dalakian in Flyweight or Jamal James vs Radzhab Butaec, to cite several examples.
Although it has not been an easy job, a firm hand has been kept throughout the process to fulfill what was promised and that the fans can see high quality fights like the ones that have watched this year.
As a result, we have managed to reduce the number of champions by 51.85% and to have 41% of the categories with only one champion. There is still a long way to go, but President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza has affirmed that he will keep his commitment to fulfill what he has promised.
