Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the World Boxing Council (WBC), acknowledged in an interview that the entity he chairs will review and improve the mandatory ruler’s rule to avoid legal issues.
“The mandatory challenger rule is the one that has worked over the years to bring justice to the sport and for mandatory challengers to have the opportunity for the title,” Sulaimán told ESPN Digital.
He added that “this rule has not been revised in many years and there are times when the regulation limits you on legal issues, because the official challenger gets rights. Then when there are situations that for some reason intervene in this mandatory fight, we should have a review and update process “.
Sulaiman’s statements come just four days after the CMB’s mandatory fight between Mexican Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) and challenger Avni Yildirim (21-3, 12 KOs) from Turkey .
This super-middleweight bout, and where the World Boxing Association (WBA) band and The Ring Magazine were also at stake, ended in just three rounds by technical knockout in favor of the champion.
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Carlos Nava recounts how the CMB allowed Canelo Alvarez to face challengers who did not deserve to fight for the title.
The low quality shown by the Turkish wrestler at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium sparked countless criticisms of the Mexican boxer and the CMB.
“In this case there was a situation that changed drastically which was the inactivity generated by the pandemic and the very effects of the pandemic. Then we ended up ordering, boxing, the official challenger, so that his rights were respected.” , continued the Mexican manager.
“In this case two years passed and it was not anyone’s fault, it was not the fault of the Turk or the body, but of a pandemic. Before the pandemic he was going to fight and they canceled the “Fight, these are things that happened. We must have a recourse not to be totally caught up in a regulation, when extraordinary things happen,” Sulaiman concluded.