The World Boxing Council and it’s president Mauricio Sulaiman have been busy making announcements over the past couple days. They have both ordered some really significant fights and have sanctioned some we already knew about. These fights involve such big names as Danny Garcia, Adonis Stevenson, Mikey Garcia, Oleksandr Gvodzdyk, and more.
- First, the WBC has announced its plans for the light heavyweight division. The sanctioning body has officially approved their titleholder Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) to defend against Badou Jack (22-1-2, 13 KOs). This means that Adonis Stevenson still will not have made a mandatory defense, but at least Jack will finally be a worthy challenger if the fight actually goes through.
- The man who has been the mandatory challenger, Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs), has apparently lost his position due to taking so many step aside payments. Why he should be punished for this when the WBC itself has approved each and every one of them, I do not know. He’ll have an opportunity to earn his position back, however, against rising Top Rank Ukrainian prospect Oleksandr Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs). That is a really great fight if it happens. It would also be interesting to see how PBC and Showtime work out the fight with Top Rank and ESPN.
- The WBC has also named February 17th’s Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) versus Brandon Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) Showtime main event a final eliminator for a shot at their welterweight title. I do not know why they are doing this so soon. They have approved their welterweight titlist, Keith Thurman, to make a voluntary defense in April. The WBC also already has a mandatory challenger that will need to be satisfied first in Shawn Porter, not to mention the fact that Thurman will have obligations for his WBA belt in there too. Basically, Thurman versus the winner here is not happening in 2018.
- An interim title belt is being created by the WBC as well at middleweight while the sanctioning body waits for resolution of the Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez saga. Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) and Hugo Centeno (26-1, 14 KOs) have been ordered to fight for it. The winner of the assumed GGG v Canelo rematch must then fight the winner of that fight or be stripped. Of course, given his recent dramatic history with the WBC, Sulaiman and company are likely hedging against a Canelo win as the Mexican superstar is unlikely to take their belt.
- Finally, the WBC is firmly ordering a super fight between Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) and Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) at lightweight. As amazing as that would be, it is unclear whether or not Garcia has much interest in returning there given that next he will be fighting for the second consecutive time up at junior welterweight, this time for a belt. Apparently Linares is due a title shot due to his WBC Diamond Belt. This is a system I do not care to even begin to try and understand. As both men have fights lined up for the first two months of the year, this is all of course contingent upon them winning.
