By Scott Gilfoid: The World Boxing Council will be moving WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) to WBC Emeritus status while his injured right shoulder heals, according to Boxrec.com. In the meantime, the February 16th bout between #1 WBC Nikola Sjeloca (25-0, 7 KO’s) and #5 WBC Sakio Bika (30-5-2, 21 KO’s) will be for Ward’s regular WBC World super middleweight title.
The Bika- Sjekloca fight was supposed to be for the interim WBC super middleweight strap, but it’s going to be upgraded to the full title.
I guess it really doesn’t matter because neither Bika nor Sjekloca will be able to do much with the title once they get it other than keep it warm until Ward heals up and then beats them. Ward already soundly beat Bika by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2010, and it’ll be even easier next time Ward fights him because he’ll choose to box him from the outside rather than slugging it out like he did last time he fought him.
If the Bika-Sjekloca is lucky, they may be able to slip in a couple of title defenses before Ward eventually faces them and beats them. When Ward comes back, he’s going to want to get some appealing opponents and I doubt that he’ll be in a big rush to face the Bika vs. Sjekloca winner because there’s no fan interest in seeing Ward destroy Bika or Sjekloca. It’s just not an appealing fight when you already know who’s going to win.
Bika will beat Sjekloca, there’s no question about it. The fight will be taking place on the undercard of the Adrien Broner vs. Gavin Rees fight on February 16th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Bika is too tough for Sjekloca and I see this as an easy fight for Bika as long as we don’t see any weird judging results.
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