Destinations for Mayweather’s four titles

By Gavin Duthie - 09/18/2015 - Comments

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By Gav Duthie: Ambitious WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has proposed two super 6 tournaments to decide the fate of Floyd Mayweather’s vacated belts in the welterweight and light middleweight divisions. If they can convince all boxers and promoters to commit to the proposal the highest ranked 154lb fighters (excluding Canelo moving up to 160) are Jermell Charlo, Vanes Martirosyan, Anthony Mundine, John Jackson, Sergey Rabchenko and a resurgent Austin Trout.

At 147lbs the top ranked are Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Antonin Decaire, Marcos Maidana and Brandon Rios. Most fans would salivate at the thought of some of these fights but it is unlikely due to promoters, TV networks, injuries and other commitments.

In all likelihood we wouldn’t see the championships resolved for a couple of years. As a result I doubt it will happen. If this is the case I have previewed the highest ranked available fights for Floyd’s four titles with predictions.

Amir Khan 31-3 (19) v Danny Garcia 31-0 (18)

A rematch at welterweight between Amir Khan and newly elevated Danny Garcia is already much mooted. Khan is rated #1 with the WBC with Danny Garcia #2. In the absence of a fight with Mayweather the best way to repair Khan’s reputation is to beat Garcia who knocked him out in 4 rounds in 2012. Khan has impressed at welterweight so far with dominant wins over Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander and a close contest against Chris Algieri. Talks are ongoing for Amir to face Ruslan Provodnikov but if the WBC acts quickly a vacant title fight with Garcia would surely create more interest. Garcia’s progression to the welterweight ranks has been slower. Catch-weight fights against Rod Salka (lightweight) and Lamont Peterson (light-welterweight)did little to impress and as a result Garcia probably needs this fight as much as Amir. Danny is so accurate I cannot see him failing to catch Khan at some point.

Garcia KO 7-9

WBA

Marcos Maidana 35-5 (31) v Shawn Porter 26-1-1 (16) (Berto, Khan)

What a great fight this would be. Both fighters don’t really know how to take a backward step and have a high level of intensive workrate. Maidana seems to be enjoying his Mayweather paydays a little too much as trainer Robert Garcia has already said it is unlikely he will fight in 2015. Maidana and Porter are ranked #3 and #4 respectively but seeing as Berto is number 1 and already had his chance with Khan at 2 possibly fighting for the WBC these would be the highest ranked. This is a hard fight to predict I can see Porter doing more work but Maidana would have a much higher chance of a stoppage.

Porter UD 12

WBC

Jermell Charlo 26-0 (11) v Vanes Martirosyan 36-2-1 (21)

More an intriguing fight than exciting as they have already fought this year. It was a relatively boring encounter which Charlo won but many feel the decision should have went the other way. Canelo Alvarez is ranked #1 but is likely to campaign as a middleweight after the Cotto bout. Jermell is generally considered the more talented of the twins but Jarmell is the first to win a title after destroying Cornelius Bundrage in 3 rounds. The first fight was only 10 rounds and an extra two would make all the difference. Martirosyan has arguably never properly lost with controversial decisions against Charlo and Demetrius Andrade as well as s technical draw against Erislandy Lara. I would definitely watch this as it would be good to see who is better and twin brothers holding world titles would also be an epic achievement at such a young age.

Charlo SD 12

WBA

Jack Culcay 20-1 (10) v Joshua Clottey 39-4 (22)

Admittedly this fight is spectacularly unspectacular. Again Canelo is ranked number 1 but is unlikely to contest the belt. Cuban Erislandy Lara is the WBA regular champion but I would expect he will be elevated to super status to open up a vacant regular bout. German Jack Culcay and Ghanian Clottey are the highest ranked. Clottey has looked decent since his return to boxing beating Aussie Anthony Mundine last year. Culcay hasn’t fought out of Germany so I’m not sure how easy this fight would be to make but the WBA will likely make an offer anyway.

Clottey KO 10-12



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