The WBC Board of Governors has voted unanimously to officially sanction the fight between Devin Haney and Zaur Abdullaev for the WBC interim lightweight championship. The fight between Haney and Abdullaev had been scheduled as a final eliminator bout for the mandatory contender of the division. Vasiliy Lomachenko fought Luke Campbell to win the vacant WBC lightweight title this past Saturday.
The WBC announced back on May 7, a series of fights in the lightweight division when Mikey Garcia vacated the WBC lightweight title. After receiving a request to accept this fight to be contested for the WBC interim championship and consistent with a conversation with Top Rank and Lomachenko, the WBC Board of governors approved the sanction.
Why on earth are they holding an “interim” title fight when the actual “world” title was won just a few days ago? This is insanity!
Sanctioning fees, pure and simple.
My theory is that boxing now reflects the youth of this world. Everyone gets a belt, like it is a participation trophy
So that they can name Lomo the franchise champion in about 3 months.. wait and see I called it first
When a fighter holds more than 1 World Title, doesn’t the WBC dub them a “Silver” Champion and then they make another guy the “Regular” champion? Just asking for a friend.
came to the comments to ask the same question..smh
To force Loma to choose between fighting the interim belt holder next or forfeit the belt.
hanet will be a world titlest soon. good luck.
I am impressed by both – Abdullaev as well as Haney. Great / interesting match up of two young fighters with a potentially great future.
Until scum like the WBC are removed from the boxing landscape, the sport has no chance to evolving from its sideshow status.
The WBC used to be thee most prestigious belt. The WBO were seen as newbies who weren’t even recognised by some rankings people.
Sure they still have their international belts etc but they seem to have (so far) refrained from the super champ status etc and making interim titles when not required.
Also their list of belt holders now stacks up pretty well. I’m not bigging up the WBO , more about damning the other 2 WBs credibility
If Haney wins convincingly, proving he was ready to the task, with couple more fights (maybe 2) he could be an excellent opponent for any of the top guys at 135, Lomachenko included.
The problem is, despite he is self managed, people around him is the type of safety first (Leonard Ellerbe and Floyd Mayweather) and most likely he will be content fighting second tier opponents or waiting for Lomachenko until he no longer represents a threat, kind of 2025.
I don’t think they are going to “wait” or “age” Lomachenko out. My concern is look what the WBC did with Charlo; three eliminates and a mandatory with Golovkin (that didn’t happen) and then just give him the belt instead of mandating the fight with the then champion Canelo. I see this happening with Haney as well. I still can’t believe they actually ranked Lomachenko for the vacant title while making Haney fight for a minor trinket. There had been an understanding amongst these organizations to not rank fighters holding rival organizations belts. If this is a one off then this is some serious b.s. Arum paying off not only the WBO but the WBC now as well.
The saddest part for me about the WBC is they are far and away the best when it comes to weigh in modifications. I love the weigh in 30 days before the fight and then again 2 weeks out. I want to love them, but this parade of belt silliness is makes it impossible!
Silver, Gold, Super, Regular, Interim & the best ever FRANCHISE!!!! Give me a break!
The bar for being the “best” is pretty low.
You forgot the two best of them Scott: Pearl for Amir Khan and the Maya version
With 40 champs per divisions, and 40 divisions, the WWE looks to be more legit than what these blood suckers have done to boxing. As much as I hate the government being involved in a sport, i’d like for them to have a boxing czar at the head of a commission, because when I think the WWE is a more legit org than the fools in charge of the boxing orgs, it’s time for a boxing commissioner who understands the game, and Teddy Atlas is a good start, because this game continues destroying itself thanks to these Wbc, WBA,frauds. And I.M.O the divisions should be called the same thing throughout the game, not have different names with each org.