By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

fightnews.com

WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza today (Wednesday) made a significant press conference with influential Asian promoters in attendance at the office of the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) in Tokyo. Mendoza at first announced the establishment of the WBA Asian Boxing Association, which is a regional organization on behalf of the Pan Asian Boxing Association (PABA), and asked the JBC to affiliate with the new body in Asia and participate therein. Secondly, the WBA prez emphasized that the Association would endeavor to have only one champion in each category in the future. Mendoza said, “We originally planned to help poor countries to have world champions by establishing interim titles, but now admit it eventually downgraded the status of the WBA championship. It’s time to correct the current situation so that we should reinstate the integrity of our championship.” Having been very loyal to the WBA by handling only WBA champions (such as Takashi Uchiyama, Kohei Kono and Ryoichi Taguchi), Hitoshi Watanabe, the president of the Japan Professional Boxing Association (JPBA) that is the union of licensed club owners here, highly welcomed his speech, saying, “The WBA is the oldest organization, and it is very important that the WBA will regain the integrity and prestige with this epoch-making move.”

People in attendance were as follows: WBA executive secretary Julio Thyme, WBA championship committee chairman George Martinez, former PABA secretary general Alan Kim; influential promoters such as Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions, Niwat/Terry Laosuwanwat of Thailand, Liu Gang of the WBA China, plus Tsuyoshi Yasukochi of the JBC who will be in charge of liaison between the WBA and the JBC.

The regional championships that the JPBA currently recognizes are: OPBF (Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation) under the WBC, the WBC Youth and the WBO Asia Pacific (ASPAC). That’s all. Previously the JPBA didn’t like too many champion-claimants and wished to regulate and limit so-called champions as much as possible. Now the WBA Asia Boxing Association will be discussed for approval here in Japan. Bon voyage.