By Miguel Rivera, photo by Ed Mulholland
There could be some major shifts taking place with two of the major sanctioning bodies.
Gilberto Jesús Mendoza, president of the World Boxing Association and Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the World Boxing Council, came together and held important meetings in Mexico and Las Vegas, where several important ideas have emerged.
One of the most relevant agreements will be to establish a single mandatory challenger for unified champions who holds both the WBC, WBA world titles. To carry this idea out, there will be a tournament between the best ranked fighters between the two sanctioning bodies, where the top rated fighters will go against each other in eliminators.
The first fighter who might benefit from this resolution is the winner of the upcoming unification between WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia and WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, which takes place on March 4 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Then there is fight between WBC, WBA, IBO, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs, which takes place on March 18 at New York's Madison Square Garden.
However, before this idea can get into action, the Presidents of the WBA, WBC are looking to hold meetings with Paco Varcarcel, president of the World Boxing Organization, and Daryl Peoples, president of the International Boxing Federation, to see if they are interested in coming on board with this plan.
One fight already facing an issue is the heavyweight battle between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, who collide on April 29th for the IBF, WBA, IBO belts. Both the WBA, IBF have ordered a mandatory defense for the winner. The WBA has ordered a fight against Luis Ortiz and the IBF ordered the winner Kubrat Pulev. The current scenario may force the victor to vacate one of the belts, as the IBF in particular does not allow step-aside deals.