"Who made up this rule?" - Andre Ward blasts the boxing championship fight payment system 

Andre Ward is extremely critical of the manner in which boxers have to pay sanctioning fees. The exchange started after the World Boxing Organization (WBO) tagged Ward on Twitter.

A fan attempted to defend sanctioning fees, and Ward was not impressed:

A fan on Twitter pointed to the payday George Kambosos Jr. received for his fight with Teofimo Lopez. Kambosos Jr. earned the fight by becoming the IBF mandatory challenger. Ward remained adamant that sanctioning fees would not benefit boxing or the boxer.

The exchange started after the WBO published a video titled 'Sanction Fees in ACTION'. The video is a series of pictures showcasing donations made by the WBO across the world. Andre Ward was amongst the many tagged by the WBO, which included Shakur Stevenson and Timothy Bradley.

Ward was not moved by the video and said:

“What is this showing exactly ? Still no clarity on where the funds from fighters purses are going and how the money benefits the ones paying the fee. I’ll wait... “

Watch WBO's 'Sanction Fees in ACTION':

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Andre Ward is not the only boxer who has complained about sanctioning bodies

Floyd Mayweather has been a vocal critic of sanctioning bodies throughout and after his career. In 2015, Mayweather refused to pay a $200,000 sanctioning fee, and was stripped of his WBO Title. Mayweather went on a rant during the buildup to Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz and said:

"People don’t know you have to pay, for every belt you win, there’s a sanctioning fee. If a fighter has just the regular belt, he has to pay a sanctioning fee. If a fighter is a super champion, he has to pay a sanctioning fee. This is not good for the sport of boxing."

Mayweather here refers to the WBA who have two separate world championships at each weight class. At Heavyweight, Oleksandr Usyk is the WBA Super Champion, while Trevor Bryan is the WBA Regular Champion.

Watch Mayweather’s rant:

Anthony Joshua is another fighter who has been critical of sanctioning fees. Joshua paid a total of over £1million to the different organisations after his 2018 fight with Joseph Parker.

Boxers have also felt let down by the sanctioning bodies. Jack Catterall, for example, was recently on the losing side of a controversial scoring decision against Unified Light Welterweight Champion Josh Taylor. Catterall was upset that he was not reinstated as a WBO Mandatory.