Ardash Sahaghian, the originator of modern championship boxing belts, will be inducted this year into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Sahaghian, 90, who designed the current WBA, WBO, IBF, and IBO title belts, began his career as craftsman of boxing belts in the 1970s. A jeweler by trade and artist by birth, he was invited by a Philip Valentino to apply his range of skills to the redesigning of championship boxing belts. At the time, Valentino was beginning to manufacture the existing 2D models of the belts. The fruits of Sahaghian’s labor are what we have come to recognize as today’s modern — 3D — boxing belts.
