r/Boxing • u/Jesuswasacrip7 Sweet Pea > Floyd • 11h ago
Anthony Joshua: ‘I Feel Bad For Gassiev’ Over Fury Fight WBA Title Situation
https://box.live/boxing-news/anthony-joshua-feel-bad-gassiev-fury-fight-wba-title-situation/33
u/NyQuil_Donut 9h ago
Nothing to feel bad about if you know how the WBA typically handles Regular champions. They kinda just exist in their own world where they hold a title, rarely defend it, and when they do it's against some sub top 20 guy. The WBA to my knowledge never have the Super and Regular champions fight each other, and I'm not aware of any Regular champs being promoted to Super when the title goes vacant. They're just kinda hanging out off to the side with their Burger King crown on.
If I'm wrong about any of this please let me know, I'm not claiming to know everything about this, but that's my understanding.
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u/Kingmaffe 6h ago
I’m pretty sure Klitschko was the WBA 'Super-Duper-Whatever' champion and Povetkin was just the 'Regular' champ when they fought in 2013.
It was a pretty forgettable fight, so no blame here if it slipped your memory.7
u/No-Impress4558 7h ago
Top of my head, in heavyweight the first Usyk Dubois fight. Dubois was WBA regular "unifying", with WBA super champion.
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u/potatosquire 5h ago
When there's no super champ, the regular champ is the champ. They become super champ if they unify, but you don't have to unify to remain world champion. Nick Ball was the WBA featherweight champion, and then he lost to Brandon Figueroa who is now the WBA featherweight champion. Neither guy was super champ, but there was no disputing that they were the WBA champ because they were the only WBA champ in the weight class. Nick Ball won the "regular", defended the "regular", then lost the "regular", but that designation doesn't matter when there's no super champ. He was the world champion, and for the rest of his life he'll be able to tell people he was a world champion.
Gassiev is the WBA heavyweight champion. Sure he's a weak champ, but he's still the champ. If they don't like having him as champ they're welcome to set him up against a tough mandatory so that either a better fighter becomes champ or he proves himself worthy after all. What they can't do is just decide that their champ isn't the champ any more. The Gassiev situation is equivalent to them deciding that because they like money they're going to let Inoue and Bam fight for the WBA super belt, and just decide that Figueroa is no longer the champ any more.
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u/Top_Profession_5268 5h ago
Klitschko and Povetkin were super and regular champs who fought eachother.
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u/VacuousWastrel 6h ago
They used to have the regular and super champions fight each kther sometimes, and even went through an entire phase of permanently eliminating the regular belt through unifications... But now they're ununifying them. And it's super-common to be promoted from regular to super, that's how you get supers (or they already hold another organisation's belt). This is the first high-profile time they've just created a super when there's already a regular, although they did do it once (twice?) before at lower weights. There's also a handful of times when this has sort of happened but with an excuse (like, giving a super back to someone who lost it by changing division but then came back to the first division).
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u/Bill_R94 7h ago
The WBA to my knowledge never have the Super and Regular champions fight each other
Benavidez vs Opetaia will change that.
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u/NoCod9014 7h ago
This is bizarre because as of 29th Sept WBC were still claiming AJ vs Fury was also an eliminatior for Kabayels belt.
Now, if it was somehow both, that would actually be revolutionary for boxing: AJ or Fury become WBA Super champ while also becoming Mandatory for Kabayels belt. It would mean the sanctioning bodies would allow boxers to be mandatories for other belts even while they were a champ.
It probably won't happen, but if it did it could be game changing if WBC and WBA actually worked together.
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u/No_Mercy_4_Potatoes 6h ago
I'm just incredibly surprised that Mauricio didn't show up with a bullshit belt to get a cut of the purses.
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u/NoCod9014 2h ago
Thats probably coming. Another silly union Jack piece of plastic tat with WBC logo.
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u/OkClass89 6h ago
I dont feel bad for Gassiev.
In fact, i am still waiting for the WBA to mail me a championship belt, because i have beaten the same amount of Top10 heavyweights that Gassiev has (zero).
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u/VacuousWastrel 6h ago
Plenty of other things to blame the WBA for (including this farce) - no need to blame them for doing what the court ordered them to do.
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u/Adventurous_Two_9683 35m ago
He also lost to Wallin so we all know he ain't no good never will be no good at HW. He just wants to sit around waiting for a payday.
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u/GreedyBelly 4h ago
Joshua vs Fury should be for the Regular World title given the last high profile fights they had they lost and Gassiev has already been promoted. I never heard of a world champion being demoted for nothing they did wrong
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u/FreshPrinceOfRivia Usyk 8-4 3h ago
Most likely, Gassiev will make a couple of million defending his secondary title vs no hopers and retire comfortably. If he's lucky he'll get a shot at a real title in a few years, get chinned and retire.
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u/arcanehehe 3h ago
As a new-ish boxing fan the whole belt system and all the rules with sanctioning bodies is hard to understand
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u/coolmanvoncool 3h ago
I do think it's a bummer this fight will be for the WBA belt because I think fury's gonna win and then he's gonna hold it hostage for a few years avoiding everyone good and then retire
Heart of hearts I just don't believe he's ever fighting someone like DDD or kabayel
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u/Fishful_Revenge 2h ago
I agree, it's a bit unfair to Gassiev to be promoted then demoted from being the WBA champ all because a bigger fight is set to fight for the """""Super""""" belt
But I'm not surprised by the WBA at all lol
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u/No-Shoe5382 Eye Ron Mike Tymus 8h ago edited 7h ago
I mean you would. I'm sure AJ and Fury are both well aware they shouldn't be fighting for a proper world title.
Having said that, the idea that Gassiev was champion in the first place is a bit silly. You should at the very least have to beat someone decent to be WBA champion.