Comments Thread For: Christian Mbilli-Diego Pacheco: WBC orders purse bid for interim title fight

[James Hunt]

Fighting for a corrupt WBC title is worthless, let alone their interim garbage, esp. when Canelo is the champ.

[ShoulderRoll]

Nothing wrong with these two actually fighting each other so that a worthy contender actually emerges for Canelo. Instead of just cherry picking while they wait to see if they get the title shot.

I’m glad the IBF and then the WBC have ordered this fight to happen.

[Grimmer]

How about just stripping Canelo and making this for the belt?
Oh wait, if Benavidez hadn't moved up he'd still be sitting around twiddling his thumbs as WBC mandatory
WBC = We Back Canelo

The WBC have called this interim fight because Benavidez stayed at 175 and gave up his spot.

The WBC mandatory would have been called straight after the Berlanga fight and we'd be seeing it in May. Canelo was even expecting this which is why the Crawford fight was made for Sept and not the May date.. Benavidez moving up and vacating his mandatory spot has left Canelo hanging, which is why we're getting Skull.

[crimsonfalcon07]

The WBC have called this interim fight because Benavidez stayed at 175 and gave up his spot.

The WBC mandatory would have been called straight after the Berlanga fight and we'd be seeing it in May. Canelo was even expecting this which is why the Crawford fight was made for Sept and not the May date.. Benavidez moving up and vacating his mandatory spot has left Canelo hanging, which is why we're getting Skull.

Benavidez was mandatory for over 2 years. Morrell for over 3. You don't get to blame him for any aspect of Canelo not fighting his mandatories. Berlanga was supposed to be mandatory for Morrell, not Canelo, btw, but Canelo decided to skip over the guy who was WBA regular and had been waiting since January 2019 to fight Morrell's mandatory. Small wonder the Davids moved up at that point. Shame on you for even suggesting that Canelo was left hanging by Benavidez.

[Southpawology]

this is a good ass match up!!

[Joseph]

Good fight, I'll watch, war Mbilli and all, but I was hoping Mustache McCumby would have had a crack at Pacheco.

[crimsonfalcon07]

No, this is a misunderstanding of how the mandatory process works in boxing

Winning an Interim Title or Regular Title does not automatically make you the mandatory challenger. The sanctioning bodies have a process to ratify and and invoke mandatory challengers. Often the Interim title holder will be ratified as the mandatory but its not always the case and it's not necessarily straight away. Holding an interim belt does not mean you are the mandatory challenger.

The WBC didn't enforce Canelo to take the mandatory immediately and which allowed Canelo the chance to take another fight. ;

Thanks for the education.

The WBC rules and the WBA rules BOTH require the champion to defend against a mandatory every year (WBC 3.5), although they've also added in discretion to not do that. The WBA did say that the regular belt was supposed to get a mandatory shot but declined to follow up on that with Canelo, but the WBC I definitely had the wrong idea about interim champs.

Upon looking it up, it appears that for the WBC, interim champions don't get mandatory status at all, as you said. I learned something new and disappointing about the WBC.

3.22 Interim Championship Rule. In special circumstances, including when the WBC in its sole discretion declares a WBC champion temporarily unavailable to defend his title, the WBC may sanction a bout between Qualified Challengers for an interim championship, or otherwise recognize an interim champion in the division. In its sole discretion, the WBC shall subsequently determine the timing and terms of any bout between a Champion and Interim Champion to determine a sole champion in the division, provided, however, that an Interim Champion shall never be deemed a mandatory challenger, or entitled to greater share of proceeds of any purse offer beyond that of a challenger, without a specific prior written order to that effect from the WBC President or his designee. For the avoidance of doubt, a WBC Interim World Championship shall be considered a true WBC World title for all purposes, other than with respect to a bout versus the actual World Champion, absent any order to the contrary from the WBC in its sole discretion.

So getting an interim championship for the WBC actually appears to be potentially really bad. But that's still not on Benavidez. The fact that the WBC let Canelo avoid facing a mandatory and refused to declare him a mandatory until after beating Andrade is the problem. And remember that the WBC also gave Benavidez only 10 days to decide whether he wanted to stay at 175 or continue waiting at 168 for Canelo, and never ordered Canelo to defend vs his mandatory. Part of that might have been because Canelo was "franchise champion," which gave him "special status with regards to his mandatory obligations", and Canelo had made it clear he was never going to fight Benavidez unless someone met his 200 million asking price. In any case, although you were right to say that he wasn't mandatory for years as Morrell was, it was abundantly clear that Canelo was refusing to face him, and the WBC was refusing to order the fight. That in no way is Benavidez hanging things up for Canelo.

[SteveM]

The WBC have called this interim fight because Benavidez stayed at 175 and gave up his spot.

The WBC mandatory would have been called straight after the Berlanga fight and we'd be seeing it in May. Canelo was even expecting this which is why the Crawford fight was made for Sept and not the May date.. Benavidez moving up and vacating his mandatory spot has left Canelo hanging, which is why we're getting Skull.

If you say so. I prefer the argument that the wbc are kicking canelo's balls because that what brings them most money, there's no money with Pacheco or mbilli as champ

[SteveM]

Nothing wrong with these two actually fighting each other so that a worthy contender actually emerges for Canelo. Instead of just cherry picking while they wait to see if they get the title shot.

I’m glad the IBF and then the WBC have ordered this fight to happen.

You mean another worthy contender after Benavidez was mandatory for how long?
Say Mbilli wins - you think Canelo will get mandated to fight him?

[LarryMerchant'sBottle]

No, this is a misunderstanding of how the mandatory process works in boxing

Winning an Interim Title or Regular Title does not automatically make you the mandatory challenger. The sanctioning bodies have a process to ratify and and invoke mandatory challengers. Often the Interim title holder will be ratified as the mandatory but its not always the case and it's not necessarily straight away. Holding an interim belt does not mean you are the mandatory challenger.

So even though Benavidez won his interim belt in 2022, he wasn't ratified as the mandatory until March 2024 (https://x.com/ringmagazine/status/1759203773212242205), The ratification simply cemented his place as the next WBC mandatory. It's basically the WBC announcing "When we decide to invoke/enforce the next Mandatory challenger for Canelo to face, the opponent will be David Benavidez". This is not the same as the mandatory being called or enforced. It's simply an announcement of who the next challenger will be. However once a mandatory challenger has been ratified, even if the mandatory hasn't been called/enforced, the champion can voluntarily decide to try and make a deal to fight that mandatory challenger and it would count as fulfilling the mandatory obligation. On the flip side, had Canelo fought Benavidez before March 2024, because Benavidez wasn't a ratified mandatory challenger, it would have just been classed as a voluntary defence and the WBC would ratify a new mandatory.

The WBC didn't enforce Canelo to take the mandatory immediately and which allowed Canelo the chance to take another fight. Benavidez not wanting to wait around took a fight at 175 in the meantime against Gvodzyk. He informed the WBC he still wished to remain the WBC mandatory for Canelo and would move back down after Gvodzyk. However a few weeks after the fight Benavidez informed the WBC he was remaining at 175, thus surrendering his position as the WBC Mandatory for Canelo. However he was ratified as the mandatory challenger for the Bivol v Benavidez winner at LHW. https://x.com/wbcmoro/status/1815887...-title-shot%2F

And that's why Benavidez is no longer the mandatory for Canelo. Benavidez was actually only the mandatory challenger for a matter of months, not years.

A very good and insightful post Targaryen.... Thanks for the explanation!