By Miguel Rivera
The new WBC interim-super bantamweight champion Julio Ceja (30-1, 27KOs) could be up against two mandatory defenses - once Leo Santa Cruz officially vacates the full WBC title to campaign at featherweight.
This past Saturday night in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz moved up to capture the vacant WBA featherweight title with a twelve round decision over Abner Mares. In the co-feature, Ceja came off the floor in the third round to get a knockout over Hugo Ruiz in the fifth.
Once Santa Cruz gives notice, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman says - according to the WBC rules - a boxer winning a vacant world title is subject to two mandatory defenses.
The first mandatory defense will come against Chinese contender Qiu Xiao Jun (17-2, 7KOs) and the next would be against Mexico's Rey Vargas (24-0, 20KOs).
"We will wait for the official information from Santa Cruz. Although he said at the press conference that he would remain at featherweight, sometimes [something could be said in] the heat of the moment and then the person says something else - so it's better to wait and once we have confirmation we'll see what happens," said Sulaiman to reporters in Mexico.