By Scott Gilfoid: Well, the WBC Board of Governors finally had their meeting and they ended voting for a rematch between Chria Arreola (36-3, 31 KO’s) and Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) to take place to fight for the vacant WBC heavyweight crown that was recently given up by champion Vitali Klitschko. Arreola and Stiverne are now free to start negotiations to put together a fight between them for the WBC title. If one of them can’t make it, then we’ll likely see #3 WBC Deontay Wilder (30-0, 30 KO’s) ordered to step in to fill in.
There will be a series of fights ordered by the WBC to determine the next two mandatory challengers for the winner of the Arreola-Stiverne fight. One would assume that Deontay will be ordered to face #4 WBC Bryant Jennings, and #5 WBC Mike Perez will be ordered to fight #6 WBC Dereck Chisora. But that’s in the best possible world. I would be very surprised if the promoters for some of those heavyweights are willing to agree to fights to get to the mandatory spot, because just by hanging around and playing it safe in fights against 2nd tier opposition some of these guys will get either picked out for a title shot or the WBC will push them up to the top anyway based on fluff wins. Look at Arreola and Stiverne. The only good guys they’ve faced recently is each other, and look how the WBC ranked them #1 and #2.
It honestly doesn’t pay off to work your tail off to become a mandatory challenger for the WBC unless you’ve got the talent to do it, because the guys that get title shots haven’t had to prove themselves. Vitali’s last mandatory challenger was Tomasz Adamek in 2011. Look at the guys Adamek faced to become Vitali’s mandatory challenger: Kevin McBride, Michael Grant, Vinny Maddalone, Andrew Golota, Bobby Gunn, and Jason Estrada. Why should a contender work his tail off for a title shot when you get guys like Adamek getting the mandatory spot without having to face live bodies?
I think Deontay Wilder should move on because if he’s going to have to fight two series of fights just to become the #1 mandatory challenger for the WBC belt, and it could take years for those fights to happen. Who wants to wait ages to fight someone like Arreola or Stiverne. That’s not even interesting. Deontay would have to beat someone like Jennings, if he were interested in taking the fight, and then in theory beat the winner of the Mike Perez vs. Dereck Chisora fight to become the mandatory.
Do you know how long it’s going to take to line up all those fights? It’s going to take ages, believe me. Deontay, 28, would likely be in his 30s by the time he gets a title shot. What good is that? Deontay should move on and look to fight his way to a title shot against Wladimir Klitschko with one of the other sanctioning bodies, because there’s just too much of a logjam to get a crack at the WBC belt.
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