The WBC Women’s Championship Committee has decided to appoint Jelena Mrdjenovich as Emeritus Champion in the featherweight division. This special honor and designation has been bestowed to very few outstanding fighters in the world including Vitali Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather and Ana Maria Torres.
The Committee also confirmed Amanda Serrano as WBC featherweight champion and will sanction the unification bout against Daniela Bermudez. The bout, now for the WBC/IBF/WBO titles is scheduled to take place on March 25 in Puerto Rico.
The 38-year-old Mrdjenovich also holds the WBA belt.
It’s been discussed ad nauseum on this board how ridiculous the sanctioning bodies are with all the “champions” they have, however the Emeritus Champion is one of the few ideas they came up with that I really don’t have a problem with.
I typically don’t have a problem with it either because I tend to view it as a title for a fighter with one foot out of the door. You give them this distinction and basically say that if they ever want to compete again, they won’t have to wait in line for a title shot if they want it.
But Jelena just fought like a few weeks ago and I don’t think she retired.
Exactly Lucie. This is from the box.live website:
“Besides the regular WBC title, the organization also awards other types of belts for exceptional achievements by boxers. One is the Emeritus Championship, only bestowed upon present or past WBC world champions. Being an Emeritus Champion in a division means that a boxer can, if he decides to fight for a WBC world title, automatically get a shot at it. An excellent example of this is Vitali Klitschko, who after retiring and vacating his WBC title in 2005, returned in 2008 and immediately got a shot at then-titleholder Samuel Peter.”
They only give this to Champions who have been outstanding, that have had a certain number of title defenses, etc. I still wish these sanctioning bodies would just go away, but this, along with one or two other things, isn’t a bad idea that came from them.
The only thing worse than these sanctioning bodies are the websites that publicize these fools.
Not to be confused with being a champion in recess.