By Edward Chaykovsky
World Boxing Association President Gilberto Mendoza Jr. is firm that his organization will order the winner of Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko to fight unbeaten contender Luis Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs).
Joshua and Klitschko will collide on April 29 before an expected record crowd of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. They will battle for Joshua's IBF title and the vacant IBO, WBA Super titles. The fight will be carried live on Sky Sports Box Office.
The WBA had created a tournament in 2016 to establish a single champion in the weight class. Nothing went as planned after Lucas Browne was stripped of the WBA "regular" title for a failed drug test and Tyson Fury, who held the WBA's "super" title at the weight, vacated his championship to deal with his mental health.
The Joshua-Klitschko winner will have a tough decision in front of him - because the IBF will order the winner to fight mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. The IBF does not allow step-aside deals, so the winner will have to work something out between all of the involved parties or be forced to vacate a title.
The Joshua-Klitschko vs. Ortiz bracket is only one side of the scenario. The other side would have Shannon Briggs and Fres Oquendo fight for the vacant "regular" belt - and the winner would then have to take on Alexander Ustinov.
Eventually, the winners of both brackets would have to collide to determine the sole WBA champion.
"After a lot of thinking, we thought that the condition to the winner of Joshua and Klitschko - two boxers that deserve to fight for a 'super' championship - will get to fight Ortiz," Mendoza told Sky Sports.
"On the other side, you have Briggs fighting Oquendo and the winner will fight Ustinov. At some point in time, I will have the two winners of those two brackets facing each other in order to have one champion. It has been a long road in order to have certain fights happen," said Mendoza. "At least I expect that Joshua and Klitschko happen and Briggs-Oquendo happen. After that, we will have mandatories for each one. Ortiz on one side, and the other we are talking about Ustinov.
"The ideal scenario for the WBA would be to make the winners of those fights face each other immediately and the winner would have a lot of time to defend against another mandatory. But I don't want to jump on it, because you never know. Every fighter has a right to earn his living and if a lucrative fight comes there way, then back-to-back mandatory fights are difficult."
