The Women's International Boxing Association (WIBA) is a sanctioning body for
women's professional boxing came into existence in July 2000, and quickly grew into a major force in the sport.
History
The WIBA was officially founded by American Ryan Wissow, and Colombian Luis Bello-Diaz.
Ryan Wissow is the president and owner of the WIBA.
Luis Bello-Diaz heads the Universal Boxing Council (UBC), an obscure men's sanctioning body headquartered in Bello's hometown of
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a lin ...
. The UBC is a separate entity from the WIBA.
The WIBA considers itself a respectable championship organization for a number of reasons.
The WIBA has received praise for their accurate and up-to-date ratings, but the quality of WIBA title fights in inconsistent. A number of highly touted boxers have held WIBA titles at some point in their career.
WIBA has had title fights in Asia, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean, in addition to the USA.
WIBA is very geographically balanced, having champions and title fights in many parts of the world, and giving opportunities to female fighters all over the globe, truly opening up the sport worldwide.
WIBA is also credited for several 'firsts' in the sport.
WIBA was the first to establish a 102-pound division for women's boxing, citing the need for a smaller weight class for female boxers. WIBA is also credited for legalizing women's professional boxing in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. Women's professional boxing was not legal in the Philippines (despite the fact that the island nation has a strong amateur women's boxing team). Ryan Wissow and the WIBA worked with the Games and Amusement Board (GAB), who oversee all professional sports in the Philippines, to change the laws in their books to allow women to box there professionally.
The WIBA is also responsible for sanctioning the very first title fight, male or female, to take place in
Guyana and in
Macao
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a po ...
.
The WIBA rates all worthy professional female boxers, including champions of other sanctioning bodies.
WIBA also encourages unification bouts with other major women's sanctioning bodies like the
IWBF,
IFBA,
WIBF, and the
WBC
WBC may stand for:
Business
*Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS
*Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company
*Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...
Female Title.
WIBA's current and former champions include
Laila Ali,
Jacqui Frazier-Lyde
Jacqueline "Jacqui" Frazier-Lyde (born Jacqueline Frazier; December 2, 1961) is an American lawyer and former professional boxer. She is the daughter of former world Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier. In January 2000, at the age of 38, Fra ...
,
Ann Wolfe,
Leatitia Robinson
Leatitia Robinson (born September 30, 1980) an American professional boxer who held the IWBF middleweight title from 2002 to 2004 and the WIBA middleweight title from 2004 to 2006.
Amateur career
Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 198 ...
,
Gina Guidi,
Sumya Anani,
Kara Ro,
Chevelle Hallback,
Maribel Zurita,
Ria Ramnarine,
Emiko Raika,
Marcela Acuña,
Ada Vélez,
Anita Christensen,
Melinda Cooper
Melinda "La Maravilla" Cooper (born March 6, 1985, in Las Vegas, Nevada), was the WIBA and IBA Flyweight Champion of the world, and is recognized as one of the elite female professional boxers on the planet.
Cooper started boxing in 1996, af ...
,
Jenifer Alcorn,
Jeannine Garside
Jeannine Garside (born April 14, 1978) is a Canadian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2010. She was a two-weight world champion, having held the WIBA super bantamweight title from 2005 to 2006; the WIBA featherweight title ...
,
Mary Jo Sanders,
Duda Yankovich
Duda Yankovich ( sr, Душица Јанковић, Dušica Janković, born September 27, 1976) is a Serbian-born former boxer and mixed martial arts fighter. She has been living in Brazil since 1999. Yankovich was the Women's International B ...
and
Melissa Hernández, Sylvia Scharper.
Current champions
See also
*
Women's International Boxing Federation
References
External links
*
{{World boxing champions
Professional boxing organizations
International women's organizations
Sports organizations established in 2000
Women's boxing
International sports organizations
Women's sports governing bodies