- REDUCTION OF 15-ROUNDERS
Following the death of Deuk Koo Kim during a bout with Ray Mancini in 1983, the WBC passed a rule that stated the maximum distance for championship bouts would be 12 rounds. - WEIGH-IN AT LEAST 24 HOURS PRIOR
Due to fears over boxers being weakened due to the weight-making process, and then fighting on the same day as weighing-in, day before weigh-ins were introduced. - INTERMEDIATE WEIGHT CLASSES
The sport once had only eight classes but now it has 17 (well, 18 if you include bridgerweight). The WBC introduced several of the new divisions, most recently strawweight, super-middleweight and cruiserweight. - THUMBLESS GLOVES
In 1983, Everlast created the first thumbless glove and it was embraced by the WBC due to concerns about eye injuries occuring from ‘thumbing’. Today, the thumb part of the glove is attached. - DOPING TESTS
THe WBC were among the first to enforce post-fight doping tests and in 2016 they introduced their Clean Boxing Programme that demanded that fighters wishing to be ranked had to sign up for random testing. - EMERITUS
Champions who retire while still holding the WBC title are usually granted ‘emeritus’ status which means should they come back they will automatically get a shot at the current champion. Vitali Klitschko [above] triggered this in 2008 when he returned to beat Samuel Peter. - FOUR ROPES
It was not uncommon for boxing rings to have only three ropes but the WBC made it mandatory for all rings staging championship bouts to consist of four. - DIAMOND CHAMPIONSHIP
A somewhat nonsensical championship that appears when there is a ‘historic’ fight in a division. Manny Pacquiao won the first one, in the welterweight division, when he defeated Miguel Cotto in 2009. - WBC CARES
The organisation do substantial charity work with the WBC Cares, which since being founded in 2006 has over 160 worldwide volunteers (their UK branch is headed by Scott Welch). - FRANCHISE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Franchise championship, which was introduced to much derision in 2019, is a different to the Diamond, Silver, Interim titles and allows champions to move between divisions, ignore mandatory commitments and do pretty much whatever they please. Probably best not to get us started on that…
Read our interview with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman here
