Championship belt
Juan Manuel López with the WBO Latino Super Bantamweight championship belt
A championship belt is a large, extravagantly designed belt used primarily in combat sports such as boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling to signify the champions of the promotion or company, much like a cup or trophy in other sports. There are several companies in the business of constructing championship belts.
Boxing
In boxing, the individual organizations such as the World Boxing Council, The World Boxing Association, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Organization each have their own unique championship belt that are awarded to the champions of each weight class. Boxers, especially the World Champions, strive to win the belt of all 4 organizations to unify their weight divisions. The Ring also created a championship system that is "intended to reward fighters who, by satisfying rigid criteria, can justify a claim as the true and only world champion in a given weight class."
Champions maintain permanent possession of these belts even upon losing their title, with a new belt made when a new champion is crowned.
Weight divisions
There are numerous Boxing weight classes within the sport, with there being minor discrepancies amongst the different governing bodies. The weight classes are:
Weight |
WBA |
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Over 200 lb Heavyweight
200 lb (90.7kg) Cruiserweight
175 lb (79.4 kg) Light heavyweight
168 lb (76.2 kg) Super middleweight
160 lb (72.6 kg) Middleweight
154 lb (69.9 kg) Super welterweight
147 lb (66.7 kg) Welterweight
140 lb (63.5 kg) Super lightweight
135 lb (61.2 kg) Lightweight
130 lb (59.0 kg) Super featherweight
126 lb (57.2 kg) Featherweight
122 lb (55.3 kg) Super bantamweight
118 lb (53.5 kg) Bantamweight
115 lb (52.2 kg) Super flyweight
112 lb (50.8 kg) Flyweight
108 lb (49.0 kg) Light flyweight
105 lb (47.6 kg) Minimumweight
Wba championship Belt Professional wrestling
The Big Gold Belt, an example of a championship belt in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment which combines athletics and theatrical performance in a mimicry of combat sports. Many storylines center around the promotion's championships, which are represented by championship belts similar to those in boxing. The top title in a major promotion is usually designated a World heavyweight championship Other, lesser championships may carry regional names, be limited to a specific weight class, or be defended in other special circumstances, such as the traditional tag team match.
The WWE is the largest promotion in pro wrestling. As a result of the company's history if acquisitions, WWE boasts two top titles, each assigned to one of the company's "brands". As of September 2011, the WWE Championship is designated to the Raw brand, while the World Heavyweight Championship is designated to the SmackDown brand.
Typically, pro wrestling title belts have a unique design for each title, in contrast with boxing where the title belts of a given sanctioning body are all the same design. The most notable exception is Japan's Pro Wrestling Noah, whose belts follow one specific design.
