By Carlos Boogs
Former world champion Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26KOs) has landed a number two ranking under the World Boxing Council, after losing his three world titles last month.
Kovalev lost a close twelve round decision to Andre Ward at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ward picked up Kovalev's WBA, IBF and WBO world titles. There is a rematch clause, which Kovalev is pursuing for the first half of 2017.
As a result of that loss, the WBC has included Kovalev in their rankings.
The current WBC light heavyweight champion is Adonis Stevenson. His mandatory challenger is Eleider Alvarez, who faces Lucian Bute in the coming months. The winner of that contest will face Stevenson in April.
Two years ago, the WBC made a controversial ruling where they placed Kovalev - who at the time held three titles from rival sanctioning bodies - as the mandatory challenger to Stevenson. After months of failed discussions, the fight never happened and Kovalev's team refused to go forward with an ordered purse bid - because there were a high probably that Stevenson's side would win and bring the fight to Showtime, but Kovalev is contracted to rival network HBO. While all of this was going on, everything was put on hold in the WBC's ranking system at 175.
Provided Stevenson will move forward against the Alvarez-Bute winner in April as planned, Kovalev would be the next fighter in line for a shot. If Kovalev's rematch with Ward goes forward - and Kovalev wins - he will likely lose his WBC ranking as the sanctioning body will not make the same mistake of placing him in the mandatory position based on the history of what transpired in the past.
