By Luke Furman
Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel, President of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), said the organization is not going to deprive Andy Ruiz of their heavyweight title.
On June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Ruiz created history and shocked the boxing world when he dropped Anthony Joshua four times for a seventh round stoppage, to capture the WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA world titles.
Within a few days, Joshua executed his right to an immediate rematch.
The second contest is slated to take place in the final quarter of the year.
Rumors began to run wild a few days ago, when Tyson Fury slated that he was going to face his Saturday opponent, Tom Schwarz, for the vacant WBO world title - or, the winner of the contest would become the mandatory challenger to the belt.
Neither statement by Fury appears to be true, according to the President of the WBO.
He states that Ruiz will not be penalized in any fashion for going forward with an immediate rematch against Joshua.
“All of the comments that everything will be taken away from him, that he should immediately defend his title, these are all rumors. There is no such problem [with the WBO], there are processes that all athletes must go through, including Ruiz, in any organization. I can say that we don't want to punish someone or take away their title. Next week there will be a press conference where Ruiz’s plans will be announced," Valcarcel told Nikolai Ryazantsev.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org