Antonio Margarito Promoted To WBA “Super Champion,” Nuzhnenko Now “Regular” WBA Champ

by James Slater – It’s incredibly tough keeping up with all the different rules of all the different boxing organisations. Proving this one more time is the recent revealed news that The WBA have just appointed Antonio Margarito, their reigning welterweight champion, as something they call “Super Champion”. According to the WBA’s rule, if and when a champion of theirs also wins another organisation’s world title, they can elevate him to “Super Champion” status..

And although “Tony” holds only the WBA world title, the organisation also has a ruling that allows them, under special circumstances, to promote a champion of theirs to “Super” status. This, for an as yet unclear reason (at least to this writer), is what they have done with the Mexican warrior. What it all means is Margarito’s mandatory defence will not now be required for eighteen months, and that unbeaten Ukrainian fighter, Yuri Nuzhnenko, previously the WBA “Interim” champion, has now been elevated to “Regular” champion. And, according to news given out by Fight News.com, Nuzhnenko’s own mandatory defence status, along with his next opponent, will be given soon. Confused? Me too!

It’s likely not too many fans will have even heard of Nuzhnenko. An unbeaten 32-year-old who was born in Kiev, Ukraine, Nuzhnenko has a good, 27-0-1(13) record. The draw came in his last fight, when he met Purto Rico’s Irving Garcia in April in a bout that contested the interim WBA 147-pound title. The draw was a technical one, as the April fight was stopped because of a head-butt, and the cards were sought after ten rounds had been completed. To make matters even more confusing, this fight was actually a defence by Nuzhnenko, as he’d won the interim belt with an away win over Frenchman Frederic Klose in December of last year.

So now what? We have no idea when Margarito, the new “Super Champion” will fight again, or against who. While we also have, because of one of the WBA’s many rules, two WBA welterweight champions ruling at the same time. Really, this has to be one of the craziest rules ever invented by any governing body. With all due respect to the unbeaten fighter from Klitschko country, who outside of Ukraine even knows who he is? Why he should be elevated to world champion status after a DRAW is beyond me, as I’m sure it will be beyond any rational thinking fight fan.

No wonder the average fan on the street finds it hard to follow boxing and keep it clearly in mind who the world champion of each weight class is right now. Oh, how much simpler it must have been in the old days!