WBC Muay Thai Expands Regulatory Structure
By Mike LNg
WBC Muay Thai at Cancun
WBC Muay Thai’s 48th Convention in Cancun, Mexico has now concluded. If you often wondered how title matches were decided and many including myself wondered what the criteria was apparently that is now to be fully disclosed.
The WBC Muay Thai wrapped up its 2010 convention with a unanimous decision to expand its organization structure to include three federations representing the country groupings of Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas. Though as of this writing I have still not gotten a reply one way or the other about a rankings delineation for all the regions WBC Muay Thai will now cover
Broadly WBC Muay Thai has commited to:
establish rankings within the structure of three federations that would be used by the world ranking committee to establish top 30 rankings in the 19 weight divisions.
The expanded structure also includes establishment of country committees to organize and authorize national titles. The national champions would receive priority ranking in their federation and be positioned to contest a prestigious federation championship that would be a main stepping stone to a world title.
The reshaping of the organizational structure will see official title belts positioned in a vertical advancement to the world titles.
Roughly, this is the structure that has been laid out to conduct Muay Thai bouts under the WBC’s auspices:
National Titles
Approved by the country committee
International Titles
Where a national champion from one country challengers a national champion from another country
Federation Titles
Contenders for federation championship will be approve based on each federations official ranking.
Inter-Continental Titles
A federation champion challenges another federation champion for an Inter-Continental title. The winner will be top ranked in the world rankings for mandatory sanctioning for world title contest.
World Titles
Inter-Continental and Federation champions will be given high ranking to challenge top Thai boxers for world titles.
My hope is that moving forward WBC Muay Thai will list the rankings of each region also on their website. As I said before nothing provides clarity like disclosure and transparency.
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