By Jake Donovan

A super bantamweight title eliminator has been ordered by the World Boxing Council (WBC) between Hugo Ruiz and Andres Gutierrez, BoxingScene.com was informed Tuesday morning.

Gutierrez fights under the Canelo Promotions banner; Ruiz is represented by Promociones del Pueblo. Both are regulars on Mexican network giant Televisa.

The winner of such a fight will be named mandatory challenger to unbeaten 122 lb. titlist Leo Santa Cruz, who is tentatively scheduled for an optional defense in the chief support to the highly anticipated rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana on September 13 in Las Vegas.

Gutierrez (29-0, 22KOs) has been on a roll ever since turning pro in 2009. The 21-year old contender rose to prominence with a 5th round knockout of Salvador Sanchez—nephew to the late, great former featherweight champion of the same name—in April ’13. The win helped initiate his run towards title contention, having also scored victories over Rey Perez and Ernie Sanchez in WBC-sanctioned bouts.

Ruiz (34-1, 3KOs) gained a reputation as one of the hardest hitting bantamweights in the world, including three straight knockouts heading into his lone title fight to date (excluding ‘interim’ belts). The experience proved controversial, dropping a hotly contested split decision to Koki Kameda in their Dec. ’12 bantamweight title fight.

The 27-year old puncher has since won three straight. The most significant of that stretch—a majority decision over former flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Miranda last September—was an indicator that killing himself to make bantamweight was no longer beneficial to his career.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as the Records Keeper for the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and a member of Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox