The last piece of Andre Ward’s former light heavyweight crown now has a date to be awarded. As most expected, Sergey Kovalev’s team’s request that his upcoming November 25th bout with Vyacheskav Shabranskyy be for the vacant WBO light heavyweight title has been approved.
The WBO title was the first one Sergey Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) won back in 2013. That was the same fight in which he announced himself to international audiences with a dominant fourth round stoppage of Nathan Cleverly. The Krusher added the WBA and IBF belts a year later with a one sided decision over Bernard Hopkins. Kovalev lost all three belts last November to Andre Ward and then lost his chance to win them back in June. Ward then retired following his second win. This will be Vyacheslav Shabranskyy’s (19-1, 16 KOs) first title shot.
In the case of the other three belts, Adonis Stevenson still holds the WBC title hostage as he has for years, Artur Beterbiev is basically being handed the IBF title with an easy on paper fight against Enrico Koelling, and the WBA promoted their secondary titlist Dmitry Bivol to full championship status. It is a new era in the light heavyweight division. Where with Kovalev fit in from here?
