Rolly Romero treatment shows nothing too low for boxing sanctioning bodies
Just when you think boxing can't get any more ridiculous, the sanctioning bodies prove that no depth is too low to sink to.
Take the World Boxing Association (WBA) for example.
Their title holder, Rolando Romero, hasn't fought since last May when he beat Ryan Garcia to win the interim welterweight title. After talks between him and Devin Haney fell through last month, he doesn't have an opponent lined up. Considering training camp takes 8 weeks, fight planning, and promo takes another 8 weeks, it's conceivable Rolly doesn't fight again until October or November.
That's fine for Rolly; he is signed to PBC, not Zuffa, and they can't make him fight if he doesn't want to. But the problem is that, as the WBA welterweight champion, Rolly has to defend his title against a mandatory challenger within nine months of a successful defense per WBA rules.
That is, unless the champion gets elevated to be the "Super Champion," at which time the titleholder has 18 months to fight an opponent instead of 9, per a different set of rules.
Last Thursday, the WBA announced that Romero had been elevated to the Super Champion title. The move gives Romero more time to hold onto a title while he's inactive (Jack Catterall won the WBA title on Saturday at the Usy v Rico event, so now he's the welterweight champion while Rollie is the welterweight "Super Champion").
If you ever wondered how a sanctioning body can have close to 30 champions while only recognizing 18 weight divisions, this is how.
Boxing social media is not happy with this turn of events, calling out both the WBA and Rolly Romero. But perhaps their anger should be directed at Lennox Lewis, because apparently the whole thing was his idea.
According to the WBA, the creation of the category of SUPER WORLD CHAMPIONS or UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPIONS "was born from a suggestion sent to us by Lennox Lewis, World Boxing Association former Heavyweight Champion, which we have considered convenient in order to give the Unified Champions a more flexible time to defend their titles as well as the challengers the chance to fight for the title."
But it sounds like the Super Champion designation was reserved for WBA champions seeking to unify belts from other sanctioning bodies. Technically, Rolly Romero does fit into that category. He was trying to unify with WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney before those talks fell through.
The problem many fans have is that Rolly never beat the champion to become the titlist in the first place. He won an interim title by beating another non-title holder in Garcia, then was elevated to full champion after Jaron "Boots" Ennis left the division to go to 154.
One fan summed it up perfectly. "Over a year out the ring and gets elevated? F****** governing bodies seriously," said @EddieBlancJnr.
Now, after not having won the title in the traditional sense, he is being elevated to "Super Champion" just so he can hold onto the title a bit longer while he finds his next opponent.
Rolly basically has 6 months to find an opponent and fight him before the WBA forces him to fight a mandatory challenger, presumably Jack Catterall, who technically won the regular WBA welterweight title on the Usyk v Verhoeven card Saturday.
Maybe the WBA strips him of his Super Champion title if he doesn't fight his mandatory. Maybe they don't. The WBA seems to follow its own rules only when it feels like doing so.
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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 12:08 PM.