Mirco Cuello has apparently been stripped of his interim featherweight belt, but not of his right to fight for the WBA’s primary world title at 126lbs.
Cuello won an elimination bout in February 2025. Behind on the scorecards going into the 10th and final round, he stopped the 22-1-1 Christian Antonio Olivo Barreda.
Cuello then was awarded the secondary interim belt last August after a second-round knockout of the 19-0 Sergio Rios Jimenez. The victory brought Cuello, a 25-year-old from Argentina, to 16-0 (13 KOs).
But in the WBA’s latest monthly ratings update – released on April 1 – Cuello is no longer listed as having the interim title. Instead, he’s been moved into the No. 1 position. The initials “OC,” standing for “official challenger,” sit next to his name.
That keeps Cuello in line to challenge Brandon Figueroa, 27-2-1 (20 KOs), who dethroned Nick Ball for the main WBA title in February with a sensational 12th-round TKO.
Ivan Chirkov, who strangely moved into the No. 1 spot the previous month, is now listed at No. 3.
The WBA’s full featherweight Top 15 has Cuello followed by Tomoki Kameda, Chirkov, Otabek Kholmatov, Ball, Luis Nery, Jan Paul Rivera-Pizarro, Lorenzo Parra, Luis Reynaldo Nunez, Reito Tsutsumi, Kyonosuke Kameda, Victor Hernandez, Christian Olivo Barreda, Jonathan Cabrera Sanchez and Ryuto Owan.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
