The World Boxing Association has reinstated Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0, 10KOs) as the 'super champion' at super bantamweight and they will allow him to make a defense against Jamie McDonnell or James 'Jazza' Dickens before being forcing to confront the interim champion, Moses 'Chucky' Flores.
According to WBA's Gilberto Mendoza, president of the organization based in Panama, Rigondeaux and his team put together a legal suit asking for reinstatement as the champion despite his inactivity.
In the legal papers they explained the reasons for Rigondeaux's inactivity, which was accepted by the WBA. The sanctioning body had declared him the champion in recess in November 2015 due to low activity.
"We had differences with Rigondeaux's team, but we mediated. They hired a legal adviser and then after negotiations we came to the decision that he would be reinstated as a super champion. He was the undisputed champion but given that he didn't have a fight for a long time he was declared the champion in recess," Mendoza said to ESPN Deportes.
"They asked us, in that agreement, to have the opportunity to fight an opponent who was not a world champion that was what we wanted. We hope it would come against James Dickens or Jamie McDonnell, who was also mentioned."
Under this consideration, Mendoza said that Mexican contender Moses 'Chucky' Flores was allowed to make a voluntary defense of the interim championship against Paulus Ambunda, which will be in Africa in June, while Nehomar Cermak was also ordered to face China's Xiao Jun Qiu for the regular championship, which will also be held in June but in China.
"What we are going to do now is a kind of tournament. The winner of the fight between Rigondeaux and Dickens or McDonell will go to the winner of Flores and Ambunda, and then the winner of these fights will go to the winner of Cermak and Xiao, and what we will have is a single [WBA] champion," said Mendoza.
