WBA Gifts Fury and Joshua Their Super Heavyweight Title
Neither fighter holds a belt, but the WBA is putting its Super title on the line anyway.
The WBA is making sure the Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight has a belt attached to it, whether one is deserved or not.
Neither Fury nor Joshua currently holds a world title. Both were dethroned by Oleksandr Usyk, who unified and then vacated. The WBA's regular heavyweight champion is Murat Gassiev, who earned the belt and successfully defended it by stopping Peter Kadiru in July. None of that stopped the sanctioning body from creating a "Super" tier designation for the December 11 fight in Cardiff, per Boxing News 24.
The move effectively demotes Gassiev. The WBA has maintained a stated mission to eliminate duplicate titles and keep single recognized champions per division, but commercial interests appear to have won out. The sanctioning fees from a Fury-Joshua fight, reportedly capped at $500,000 total, make the decision financially obvious.
Critics have called the title "a promotional party favor" rather than legitimate championship recognition. Gassiev, who actually holds the belt and defended it, receives no built-in incentive to fight the winner. The division remains splintered.
The WBA is far from the first sanctioning body to create titles for marquee fights, but the timing is brazen. Fury and Joshua are two of the biggest names in heavyweight history. They do not need a manufactured belt to sell the fight. The fight sells itself.
The December 11 card at Principality Stadium in Cardiff will stream on Netflix.
This is boxing doing what boxing does best: making up titles for fights that do not need them. Fury and Joshua could fight in a parking lot and it would do a million buys on Netflix. The WBA slapping a belt on this is pure cash grab, and everyone involved knows it.
The real disrespect is to Gassiev. The man won the belt, defended it, and now the sanctioning body he pays fees to created an entirely new tier above him so two guys who lost to Usyk can call themselves champion again. That is the kind of thing that makes people hate sanctioning bodies, and rightfully so.
I am still watching this fight. You are still watching this fight. The fake belt changes nothing about the actual contest. But let us not pretend this is anything other than what it is: the WBA cashing a check and handing out party favors.
