BOXING’S alphabet ratings remain as bewildering as ever, with seemingly two mandatory challengers – Vergil Ortiz Jr and Serhii Bohachuk – jostling for the opportunity to face WBC world champion Sebastian Fundora.
This messy development arrives following the WBC’s decision to rank Jaron Ennis, the former unified welterweight champion, as its number-one rated contender at 154lbs.
In doing so, the sanctioning body overlooked the credentials of Bohachuk and instead placed ‘Boots’, who makes his super-welterweight debut on October 11, in pole position to become a two-division world champion.
It is worth noting, too, that Ennis’ next outing, against Uisma Lima, has been sanctioned as a WBA elimination bout, thus making him ineligible to remain in the WBC rankings.
As a result, the organisation has since responded to an appeal submitted by Bohachuk’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, and reinstated the Ukrainian as its leading contender.
In his letter, Loeffler quite rightly highlighted all of the aforementioned issues, while also suggesting that Bohachuk’s clash with Ishmael Davis, which saw him claim a sixth-round stoppage victory last year, was an official eliminator for the WBC mandatory position.
According to the WBC, however, it would appear that Ortiz, who is gearing up to defend his ‘interim’ title against Erickson Lubin on November 8, is the mandatory challenger for Fundora.
The organisation labelled him as such in an article that was published last Friday, despite approving Loeffler’s appeal, which requested for Bohachuk’s mandatory position to be recognised, just a few days later.
In a bid to clean up the situation, the WBC had stated in June that a rematch between Ortiz and Bohachuk, who collided in a thrilling encounter last year, was pending to be ordered.
But with Ortiz entering a fight against Lubin, and Bohachuk rematching Brandon Adams in a middleweight contest next month, it seems that the opportunity to crown a definitive mandatory challenger has now come to pass.
Regardless of whether he earns the chance to exact his revenge over Ortiz, though, Bohachuk will no doubt be seeking more clarity over his status at 154lbs.
