World Boxing Council outline WBO, IBF and WBA merge plan in 2023
The WBC wants clarification regarding mandatory bouts for unified and undisputed champions. Plus, a clear path for all champions to have the ability to unify with others should they so choose to do so.
Therefore, all sanctioning bodies will merge their championships in the next twelve months.
Revealing a detailed blueprint of what got discussed, the World Boxing Council is confident the future will produce the best fights for fans.
They want everything in place by 2023.
The WBC said: “The WBC has been working with the WBO, IBF, and WBA. We are trying to address important topics together.
“We wanted especially to handle the mandatory rules for champions who hold two or more championship belts.
“That is an ongoing process between the four organizations.”
They continued: “The goals are to begin 2023 with a single procedure to establish mandatory bouts. To design an elimination system to manage together the organizations’ mandatories in cases of champions of more than one organization.
“The WBC Board of Governors approved addressing the mandatory rules within the WBC. We aim to protect the integrity of boxing and to provide the best fights to the fans and the industry.
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“Therefore, we hereby inform promoters, managers, and broadcasters that we have initiated a process to establish the mandatory fights for unified and undisputed champions.
“We are announcing that whoever participates in an elimination, semifinal elimination, or final elimination bout for the privilege of the mandatory status of a division, the winner might be subject to fight the compulsory opponent of another sanctioning organization.
“This is in case there is a unification fight or a unified champion in the division.
“Such a contest will be considered a final elimination. The ultimate goal is to create a common mandatory contender to the unified champion.
“We will include the appropriate language in all sanctioning letters so that the participating boxers know how the mandatory status will be determined whenever there is unification.
“This new concept will create a higher level of opposition with proven mandatory contenders. It will also allow unified champions to have more significant activity instead of having to fight mandatories of each organization.
“Nobody wants boxers to lose their titles for lack of compliance with the rules.”
