The World Boxing Council has finally made a move and demoted Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) to WBC “Emeritus” 147 and 154lb champion. The WBC met for their Emanuel convention, and made the move in vacating the 38-year-old Mayweather’s two titles with the organization.
Mayweather gave the WBC no choice but to make the move after he said he was retiring and not coming back to the sport after his farewell fight against Andre Berto on September 12th.
What made thins confusing is that Mayweather didn’t officially vacate the titles, which gave some boxing fans the impression that he would come back in 2016 or at some time in the future to resume defending his titles.
“The titles are vacated. He [Mayweather] is Emeritus champion,” WBC president Mauricio Suliaman said via ESPN Desportes. “It’s official. We gave him time to make this official presentation here at the Convention. We are proud to do it this way. He is a champion for eternity with the WBC and he knows this is his family. We are celebrating one of the greatest. If he leaves and comes back. It is secondary. I would not want to speculate,” Suliaman said.
Suliaman didn’t say who will be challenging for Mayweather’s two WBC titles at 147 and 154. Amir Khan is ranked #1 WBC and Danny Garcia #2 WBC. But it looks like Khan is about to fight Manny Pacquiao in April of next year.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all if the WBC put their WBC 147lb title on the line for that fight if it takes place. Garcia would be out of luck if that happens. It’s unclear whether he was hoping to fight for the WBC 147lb title or not, of if he merely moved up in weight to welterweight in order to get a big payday.
At 154, Jermell Charlo is ranked #1 WBC and John Jackson #2 WBC. This could work out perfectly for Charlo and Jackson, because Charlo says he’s interested in fighting Jackson in December. The WBC could then put their WBC 154lb title on the line for that fight.
Suliaman did the right thing in stripping Mayweather and demoting him to WBC Emeritus Champion. It’s just surprising that he didn’t make the move sooner like the WBO did after Mayweather started talking retirement.
The sanctioning bodies have to do this kind of thing because other fighter’s that are ranked by the WBC have their careers on hold when the sanctioning bodies just freeze let the champion sit on the title without defending it like a mother goose.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko sat on his WBC title for over a year without defending it from September 2012 to December 2013. The WBC waited 15 months before they stripped Vitali of his title.
If Mayweather wants to come back in 2016 to resume his career, he can get an immediate title shot against whoever the WBC welterweight and WBC junior middleweight champions are at that point. It’s doubtful that Mayweather will bother fighting for either of those belts, because the fighters that will likely capture those belts aren’t the type of guys that Mayweather has expressed interest in fighting.
Mayweather has ignored Khan for years despite his constant chasing of Mayweather. Jermell Charlo isn’t a big enough name for Mayweather to want to bother fighting him, because there would be no money in that fight.
It’s too bad that Mayweather doesn’t come back next year and fight Pacquiao for the WBC title if he beats Khan in April. But it won’t work out if Pacquiao gets elected into office in the Philippines in the elections in May.
Pacquiao is running for a senate position and he has a very good chance of winning the position, even though he’ll only have 30 days to campaign for the spot due to him being busy training for his April 9th fight.
Pacquiao has already made it clear that he’ll be retiring from boxing if he wins the senate position because he won’t have time to train and fight because of his work in the senate.
It’s doubtful that Mayweather will make a comeback until he blows all of his money. I think it’ll take him 5 years or so to go through his entire fortune. By then, I don’t think boxing fans will be too interested in paying to see a 40+-year-old Mayweather fight on PPV.
Article courtesy of Boxing News 24