World Athletic Association

The World Athletic Association was formed by boxing promoter Pat O'Grady in Oklahoma, after the World Boxing Association withdrew recognition of his son, as world lightweight champion, in July 1981.
The first WAA's fight was held on October 31, 1981, when Sean O'Grady was knocked out in 2 rounds by Andrew Ganigan for the lightweight title, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The group's first super middleweight champion was , who knocked Ron Brown out in 6 rounds, on April 3, 1982, in Denver, Colorado, for the newly inaugurated WAA title. After one defense, Wimpy soon outgrew the division. (Note: the Halstead-Brown bout was the third in the history of the super middleweight or "junior light heavyweight" division. Don Fullmer stopped Joe Hopkins in 6 rounds for the vacant world junior light heavyweight title in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 3, 1967 but never defended it. The title was dormant until Billy Douglas knocked out Danny Brewer in 2 rounds in Columbus, Ohio in a bout advertised as being for the "vacant world junior light heavyweight title." Douglas, too, did not defend that championship.)
Pat O'Grady's son-in-law, Monte Masters, won the vacant WAA heavyweight title knocking Tony Fulilangi out in 14 rounds, on September 22, 1983, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Masters was promptly stripped of his heavyweight title after splitting from Pat's daughter in 1984. Then, an eliminatory match for the vacant title was scheduled between two just retired boxers Clarence Hill and . That fight never happened.
Sean, who has been inducted into the WBHOF, briefly held the organization's welterweight title. He halted in 3 rounds on April 3, 1982 to win the title and defended it with a first round knockout over novice Orin Butler two months later. After losing a non-title bout to veteran contender Pete Ranzany on October 30, 1982, Sean's title went dormant and he was no longer billed as the WAA champion.
Another fighter to hold a WAA title in its early period was San Diego, California's Irving Mitchell. On June 23, 1983, "Sweet Irving" won the initial WAA featherweight title bout with a 15-round decision over California-based Irishman Richie Foster. After winning the USBA title from Refugio Rojas, Mitchell successfully defended the WAA belt by outpointing Ricky Wallace. It was his only defense. He went on to unsuccessfully challenge for the IBF featherweight title in 1985 and the WBA junior lightweight title in 1989.
The WAA's last fight was in August 1985, when Canadian Michael Olajide won the middleweight title, knocking Sakaria Ve out in 9 rounds, in Fiji.
The WAA splintered into two separate "WAAs" after a falling out between Pat O'Grady and Champ Thomas. Thomas' Colorado-based version did not last very long and O'Grady's Oklahoma-based group lasted only a few years.
A Georgia-based, International Boxing Union-related group obtained the rights to the World Athletic Association in 1996. Among the fighters the "new" WAA recognized as champions before it too slipped into dormancy were Americans Rob Calloway, Ray Domenge, Jonathan Corn, Harold Brazier, Rob Bleakley, and German Gene Pukall.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu