WBC ratings and mandatories at Hamburg 2024 Annual Convention
In Hamburg, there has been a marathon session exploring, charting and deciding boxing hierarchy within the World Boxing Council.
Below is an update of all the latest movements within the WBC world rankings:
Strawweight: Beaven Sibanda goes from 15 to 13. Champion Melvin Jerusalem came to the stage to thank the WBC for its confidence.
Strawweight champion Melvin Jerusalem can choose a voluntary defence.
Female WBC minimumweight champion Yokasta Valle will fight against Interim Champion Umi Ishikawa.
Light-flyweight: No change.
Flyweight: Atem Dalakian returns to #11 from #15.
Champion Kenshiro Teraji will fight a voluntary defence.
Super-flyweight: Champion Jessie “Bam” Rodriguez just defeated Pedro Guevara and can now fight a voluntary defence. Andrew Moloney and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez will fight for mandatory spot.
Bantamweight: Reigning WBC champion Junto Nakatani, who has successfully fought two defences, is awarded with a WBC Statue. He thanked Mauricio Sulaiman and the WBC Family.
Bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani is in a voluntary phase.
Unified champion Dina Thorslund can’t find challengers to fight, so will move up weight categories.
Super-bantamweight: Undisputed champion Naoya Inoue fights Australia’s Sam Goodman on Christmas Eve, live on Sky Sports.
Featherweight: Brandon “Heartbreaker” Figueroa will rematch Stephen Fulton, while #1 ranked Bruce Carrington is to fight an eliminator.
Female champion Skye Nicolson seeks a unification clash or a defence against Tiara Brown.
Former champion Jelena Mrdjenovich, who has been boxing for 20 years, says she wants one final goodbye title opportunity.
Super-featherweight: WBC #19 Khalil El Hadri and #30 William Vargas will fight for the vacant WBC Silver belt. Sixth ranked Michael Magnesi will fight the winner.
O’Shaquie Foster, who won back the title, is now in voluntary phase. Final eliminator will be Mark Magsayo and Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez.
Delfine Persoon is granted an immediate rematch against champion Alycia Baumgartner after their no contest draw. Delfine suffered a cut after an accidental clash of heads.
Lightweight: Caroline Dubois is elevated to full champion and presented with her new belt. Katie Taylor vacated and is now super lightweight champion.
Voluntary defence for Shakur Stevenson against Floyd Schofield, while the Interim champion William Zepeda is healing from a shoulder injury.
Super-lightweight: Dalton Smith moves up a place to #2. Jack Catterall is now #3.
Mandatory challenger Sandor Martin fights champion Alberto Puello on March 1st.
Former undisputed champion Chantelle Cameron reps want her to become mandatory challenger to Irish Katie Taylor. But then agreed to a trilogy fight between Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
Welterweight: Blair “The Flair” Cobbs wants to fight Mario Barrios for the WBC title. He defeated Adrian Broner and promised a future challenge.
Super-welterweight: WBC Silver champion, Bakary Samake, greets the Convention. His most recent fight took place in front of 40,000 fans.
Terence Crawford is the champion Sebastian Fundora’s mandatory challenger.
Middleweight:IBO World champion Chris Eubank is moved up from #3 to #2.
Carlos Adames will have two mandatories. Firstly, against Hamzah Sheeraz. Then, the winner fights Meirim Nursultanov.
Super-middleweight: Terence Crawford requests notice for Steven Nelson, an up and coming fighter from Omaha, Nebraska, the same city as ‘Bud’, who is currently 20-0, 16KOs.
Undisputed champion Saul Canelo Alvarez is in voluntary phase. Christian Mbilli fights Jaime Munguia for the interim belt. Female champion Franchon Crews Dezurn is in voluntary phase.
Light-heavyweight: Undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev rematches Dimitri Bivol on February 22nd.
Interim champion David Benavidez faces David Morell. The winner faces the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol 2.
Cruiserweight: Michael Cieslak moves from #1 to #3. NABF champion Ryan Rozicki is moved from #2 to #1. He recently drew with Yamil Alberto Peralta, who resumes at #2.
Cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian was to fight mandatory defence against Ryan Rozicki but it fell through. Now a legal process could entangle matters.
Badou Jack, who champion in recess, is now elevated back to full champion and says he’s ready and available to fight again, preferably against Noel Mikaelian next.
Peralta and Cieslak now fight for the Interim title.
Noel Mikaelian is now the champion in recess.
Bridgerweight: Bridgerweight champion Kevin Larena will fight Silver champion Serhiy Radchenko in Kiev on February 22.
There will be an Interim battle between Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and #1 ranked Adam Balski.
Heavyweight: Lawrence Okolie is the new silver champion, who is ranked #5, and now moves up to #4.
An interim fight has been made between Agit Kabayal and Zhilei Zhang.
