WBC 53rd convention report: Day 2 – Mandatory Defenses and More
By Boxing Bob Newman
Photos: Bob Newman/Alma Montiel
Day three of the WBC 53rd annual convention in Kunming, China was largely taken up by the mandatory defenses meeting. Each weight class was discussed, including some complex situations, among the board and the representatives of either the champions or potential mandatory challengers. It should be noted that being ranked #1 in a division does not guarantee mandatory challenger status. According to the WBC rules, a final eliminator must be fought between the two highest available contenders to determine the mandatory challenger to the title. There were some instances however, where the board voted and mandatory status was granted to long time #1 rated contenders. The list of champions, their mandatory defense status and challenger situations follows:
Heavyweight: Deontay Wilder
Mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin will take on Marius Wach tonight in Russia in defense of his WBC Silver title. If Povetkin wins, he will be ready sometime after April or May to challenge Wilder. Wilder has been granted a voluntary defense tentatively scheduled for January 16th.
Cruiserweight: Grigory Drozd
Mandatory challenger Ilunga Makabu has been waiting for his shot to materialize. The WBC has stated it will assist in making the proposed March 2016 fight come to fruition.
Light Heavyweight: Adonis Stevenson
At the last convention in Las Vegas (December 2014), the WBC anointed WBO/IBF/WBA champion Sergey Kovalev as the mandatory challenger to Stevenson. Based on this being the most anticipated fight in the light heavyweight division for some time and a fight sure to satisfy the fans, this unique decision was made. The fight, up to now has failed to materialize. Representatives for both camps are present at this convention and assured the WBC that negotiations are still in ongoing to make the fight happen. However, a final eliminator between Eleider Alvarez and Isaac Chilemba for the mandatory status, as well as the NABF and Silver championship has been set for November 28. After that fight has resolved, a determination will be made based on the status of the Kovalev-Stevenson negotiations.
Super Middleweight: Badou Jack
Jack satisfied his mandatory immediately after winning the title by narrowly outpointing George Groves on September 12th. He is in a voluntary stage now and has called out Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. to which J.C. Chavez, Sr. personally responded (both are here at the convention) that he’d love to see his son take the fight. The WBC would approve this match as a voluntary defense for Jack.
Middleweight: Miguel Cotto
The much anticipated match between champion Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will take place on November 21st. The winner is ordered to immediately defend against mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. This is also another rare move as “GGG” is holder of the WBA/IBF/IBO and WBC Silver titles. But president Mauricio Sulaiman reiterated, “The WBC is trying to do what it can to make the fights the fans want to see for the betterment of boxing.
Super Welterweight: Vacant
Welterweight: Vacant
Due to the retirement of dual champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr., both the welter and super welter titles are vacant. The WBC has decided to go in a new direction in filling the vacancies by holding a tournament to fill each weight class title. Said Sulaiman, “We want the fans to see the eventual champion make his way through a series of fights on television so they will know who he is by the time he wins the belt.” The idea does have some merit, as often times, a vacant title is filled after a fight between two fighters, neither of whom boxing fans have ever heard of. The top fifteen ranked fighters in each division will be petitioned for their availability and willingness to enter the tournament and a decision will be made as to how many combatants will comprise the field.
Super Lightweight: Viktor Postol
By winning the vacant belt, Postol inherited not one, but two mandatory defenses, per WBC rules. The first mandatory position is held by Amir Imam, who is rumored to be fighting on November 28th, but no scheduled bout can be seen on BoxRec for Imam. The second mandatory challenger has yet to be determined via a final eliminator. Postol doesn’t want to wait on a challenger and has successfully petitioned the WBC for a voluntary defense.
Lightweight: Jorge Linares
Linares won the vacant title on December 30th, 2014. He made the first of his inherited two mandatory defenses against Kevin Mitchell on May 30th. Dejan Zlaticanin is his next mandatory challenger and negotiations are underway.
Super Featherweight: Takashi Miura
Miura’s mandatory will be satisfied on November 21st against Francisco Vargas at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on the Cotto-Alvaez undercard.
Featherweight:
As reported on Fightnews.com just this morning, champion Gary Russell, Jr. has sustained a training injury, postponing his fight with Oscar Escandon for a second time. Due to the special circumstances involved, the WBC has decided to make an exception on its policy of interim champions and have called for original challenger Escandon to vie for the interim championship against Robinson Castellanos. Details to follow…
Super Bantamweight: Julio Ceja
More interesting circumstances here. There has been no mandatory challenger named in this division. A four man tournament has been ordered to determine an eventual mandatory challenger. If all parties agree, #1 Qiu Xiao Jun (China) will face #4 Alexis Kabore (Burkina-Faso). #2 rated Rey Vargas (Mexico) will square off against freshly stripped of his other titles, #3 Guillermo Rigondeaux. The winners of those two fights will face off to determine the mandatory challenger. In the meantime, Hugo Ruiz, who waged an epic, losing battle against Ceja for the vacant crown, will get a much deserved rematch, thanks to the dogged persistence of his advisor Sampson Lewkowicz.
Bantamweight: Shinsuke Yamanaka
Longtime #1 rated Suriyan Sor Rungvisai will face recent challenger and former longtime WBA champ Anselmo Moreno for the right to be mandatory challenger to Yamanaka as well as become holder of the WBC silver belt. There is an interesting caveat however. If in the meantime, before that fight happens, Yamanaka decides to vacate the belt, the Rungvisai-Moreno winner will be crowned the new WBC champion.
Super Flyweight: Carlos Cuadras
Cuadras will make a voluntary defense against #2 rated Koki Eto in Japan on November 28th. The winner will be mandated to fight #1 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai next to satisfy the mandatory defense.
Flyweight: Roman Gonzalez
After much haggling, long time #1 rated Nowaphon Sor Rungvisai was overwhelmingly voted by the WBC board of governors as the mandatory challenger to “Chocolatito.” Rungvisai managed the feat without having fought a final eliminator, through no fault of his own. The WBC had ordered the final eliminator between Rungvisai and former light fly champ Edgar Sosa. Sosa opted out, and negotiated his way into his own title shot against Gonzalez, whereupon he was destroyed in two devastating rounds. Now Nowaphon will get his own chance in the ring against the consensus poung-for-pound dynamo.
Light Flyweight: Pedro Guevara
Guevara just made his mandatory on July 4th against Ganigan Lopez. He’ll make an optional defense against Yu Kimura in Sendai, Japan on October 28th. #1 rated Jonathan Taconing has been ordered to face #4 rated Juan Hernandez to determine the mandatory challenger. Taconing’s team has been hesitant to commit to the fight as it has not yet received a contract from Hernandez’ promoter Promocciones del Pueblo (Oswaldo Kuchle). WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said he will personally intervene to ensure the contracts are sent immediately.
Minimumweight: Wanheng Menayothin
Champ Menayothin will make an optional defense against #9 ranked Korean Young Kil Bae on November 24th. #1 rated Denver Cuello will square off against #2 rated Saul Juarez for the mandatory spot on December 5th. The mandatory will be due by February of 2016.
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Other matters of business on the day:
Female division chairman Malte Michaelis Müller reported on the state of the female game in the WBC. There are currently sixteen champs from 10 countries. So far in 2015, there have been 45 WBC female title bouts contested, with fifty possible by the end of the year. Following the success of the first ever WBC female convention last year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the second such gathering will take place from December 10-13th in Tijuana, Mexico.
Long time agent, advisor, writer, WBC fighter representative and all-around boxing sage Don Majeski was presented with a WBC belt for his years of service not only to the WBC but to the sport of boxing itself.
The Jose Sulaiman Champions Race continues to be successful with the most recent run in Mexico City. Proceeds went to the Autism Foundation. Future such events will be forthcoming.
Th World Boxing Cares group visited a special elementary school for disadvantaged children yesterday with champs Badou Jack, Leo Santa Cruz and Raja Amasheh in tow. The stars played with the children, signed autographs, delivered stickers, toys and more.
The Jose Sulaiman Fighters Fund, which started with the Hublot watch auction two years ago at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, has been dispersing roughly $170,000 per year to retired fighters who have been determined to be in need. The fund is maintained and administered in Nevada in a nonprofit enterprise. Further funds have been raised by participating promoters such as Sampson Lewkowicz through fight ticket sale proceeds. Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson ticket proceeds also went to the fund.
Dr. Louis Escalona reprised his talk from the medical seminar yesterday concerning the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program- the joint effort with VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency). The mission is to educate fighters on the dangers of doping and rid the sport of the doping scourge.
There is an effort in the WBC to form a boxing gym registry, where gyms will weigh their fighters regularly, regardless of whether or not they have a fight scheduled. The hope is to keep fighters within safe limits of their weight classes in which they fight, reducing drastic weight loss come fight time.
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