WBA — World Boxing Association

What is the WBA?

The World Boxing Association (WBA) sanctions professional boxing: it recognises world champions, rates contenders and supervises the title bouts it sanctions. The WBA calls itself “the most representative organization of professional boxing”.^[1] That is its own description. Other sanctioning bodies include the WBC, the IBF and the WBO. Each sanctions its own world championship in each division, and none of them holds “the” world title.

The WBA does not form part of the Olympic structure of sport. It works with the state and national commissions that license and regulate professional bouts. US federal law defines a “sanctioning organization” as “an organization that sanctions professional boxing matches in the United States” between boxers from different states or in interstate commerce, and separately defines a “boxing commission” as “an entity authorized under State law to regulate professional boxing matches”.^[7]

The WBA’s By-Laws page records by-laws approved in Orlando, Florida, in December 2022.^[5] No statement of the WBA’s legal form or registered seat could be retrieved.

What does the WBA govern or do?

The WBA writes the rules for the contests it sanctions. Its current rulebook, the Rules of the World Boxing Association, bears the line “Last amendments made on December 12, 2022 and April 22, 2024”.^[4] The rules set out the WBA’s championship categories. A World Champion is “a champion recognized by the Association”. A Super Champion may be designated “in exceptional circumstances”. An Interim Champion may be named when a World Champion is designated inactive for “justifiable medical, legal, or other reasons reasonably beyond his control”, and a champion can be placed in recess. The rules also recognise a unified champion, meaning a World Champion recognised by the WBA and by one or more other sanctioning organisations in the same weight category.^[4]

The rules fix mandatory-defence deadlines: a non-heavyweight champion who was previously the Official Contender must defend “within nine (9) months from the date the title was obtained”, and one who was not “within one hundred twenty (120) days”; for heavyweights the periods are twelve months and 180 days.^[4] On drug testing they provide: “Only official testing authorized or directed by the Association or local commission shall be considered.”^[4] The WBA supervisor at a bout “shall assist the local commission to carry out the fight and to ensure that all Association rules are followed”.^[4]

The WBA does not license boxers or bouts, which is the commissions’ role. It is not on WADA’s list of Code signatories.^[9] See Anti-doping and World rankings.

When was the WBA founded and where is it based?

The WBA’s history page says the organisation was “born as the National Boxing Association (NBA) in 1921, in Rhode Island”. It describes the NBA as a body for governing professional boxing whose jurisdiction at first was limited to the United States.^[2] The same page gives the change of name to World Boxing Association as “August 23, 1962”, explaining that professional boxing needed an organisation with “a real world vision”.^[2] Both dates come from the WBA’s own history, and no independent primary source for either was retrieved.

According to that history, the NBA and WBA had “43 North American presidents” in their first decades. It names the Panamanian Elías Córdova as the first Latin American member of its executive committee, in 1964, and as its president from 1974.^[2]

The WBA’s contact page gives its office as “Isaac Hanono Misrri St., Torre de las Americas, 12th floor, Office 1202A, Punta Pacifica, Panama, Panama”. It lists telephone numbers in Panama and the United States.^[3] The WBA’s governing Directorate has met in the United States: its regulations index heads the current rules “WBA Rules as Amended at Directorate Meeting in Orlando, Florida”, and its by-laws page lists by-laws approved in Orlando in December 2022.^[5][11]

How is the WBA recognised?

The WBA is a professional sanctioning body and holds no recognition from the International Olympic Committee. Its standing rests on the commissions that regulate the bouts it sanctions and on the law that governs sanctioning bodies.

United States. Under the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6307c bars a sanctioning organisation from receiving compensation for a bout unless it files certain documents with the Federal Trade Commission each year. These are “a complete description of the organization’s ratings criteria, policies, and general sanctioning fee schedule”, its bylaws, its appeals procedure for ratings, and a list of the officials who vote on ratings. The FTC must make that information public.^[10] The same section directs the Association of Boxing Commissions to approve guidelines for “objective and consistent written criteria for the ratings of professional boxers”.^[10]

The Association of Boxing Commissions’ page of “Ali Act Compliant Sanctioning Organizations”, which it describes as “Organizations that have complied with the Ali Act. Regarding filing with the FTC.”, lists the WBA among 24 organisations. The WBC, IBF and WBO are also on that list, which carries no date.^[8]

WADA. The WBA is not on WADA’s list of Code signatories, which does not include the WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO.^[9]

What does the WBA organise?

The WBA does not stage a championship event. It sanctions title bouts that promoters stage under the authority of the local commission. Its role is to rate boxers, designate champions and mandatory challengers, and supervise the sanctioned contest.^[4]

The WBA ratings for August 2026, dated 31 August 2026, cover 17 men’s weight divisions from Minimum to Heavyweight. The designations used in them include WBA Super Champion, WBA World Champion, WBA Interim Champion and Champion in Recess. The tables also show secondary titles: Gold, International, Intercontinental and Continental champions.^[6] Under the rules, the ratings list “at least ten (10) and no more than fifteen (15)” boxers per division. They are posted on the WBA website “in the month following the month to which the ratings apply”.^[4]

The WBA also publishes female championship rules^[11] and a separate female ranking.^[1] Its regional sanctioning runs through regional bodies (see below). For how weight divisions work across boxing, see Weight classes and making weight.

Who are its members?

The WBA’s directory lists individuals, not member federations. It names the officers of the Executive Committee and the Directorate, regional directors and vice-directors, and the chairs and members of committees.^[12] The rules refer to promoters, managers and boxers “in good standing” with the Association.^[4] No WBA statement retrieved gives a membership made up of national commissions, or a count of members.

The WBA’s regional structure is set out in its history. It says the WBA created regional federations, among them FEDELATIN, PABA, FEDEBOL, FEDECENTRO, NABA, WBAI and PFBA, to decentralise its work.^[2] Its current directory lists regional directors for North America, Latin America, Europe, Iberoamerica and Mediterranean, Asia, Oceania and Africa, with the Oceania and Africa posts shown as vacant.^[12]

WBA Europe publishes its own procedure and fees for requesting sanction of Intercontinental, International and Continental titles.^[11] National commissions, such as the state commissions in the United States, regulate the bouts the WBA sanctions.^[7]