By Chris Williams: The World Boxing Council has ordered WBC World light welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) to defend against interim WBO 140lb. champion Regis Prograis (21-0, 18 KOs) in his next fight. A purse bid is scheduled for April 27 if the management for the two fighters is unable to make a deal.
By Marcus Richardson: Alexander Povetkin is now back in the World Boxing Council’s ratings after having been banned for 1-year following a positive drug test. The WBC has the 38-year-old former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin (33-1, 23 KOs) at No.4, bellow #1 Dillian Whyte, #2 Dominic Breazeale and #3 Luis Ortiz.
By Sean Jones: The World Boxing Council has picked WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin as the 2017 Fighter of the Year for his impressive performances against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs. In that respect, the WBC mirrors my thoughts in selecting GGG as the 2017 Fighter of the Year. It was an easy pick for me, as what Golovkin accomplished against Canelo and Jacobs dwarfed what my runner up Vasyl Lomachenko accomplished in beating Miguel Marriaga, Jason Sosa and Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2017.
By Jim Dower: World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman appears to be on the verge of putting his foot down to address WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) not facing his mandatory challenger for the last 4 years of his career. Sulaiman says he’ll be making a ruling soon.
By Scott Gilfoid: Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) has officially been made the #1 ranked contender in the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight rankings. It’s a move that was expected due to Whyte’s recent win over fringe contender Robert Helenius last month on October 28 in Cardiff, Wales.
By Jim Dower: The WBC showed off their new Huichol belt on Tuesday in Mexico City to display it to the media and boxing fans for the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Huichol belt is the 2nd edition of the Adolfo López Mateos Belt.
By Scott Gilfoid: Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) has been removed from the World Boxing Council’s top 15 rankings this week after 1 year of inactivity. Khan, 30, last fought on May 7, 2016 in getting knocked cold in the 7th round by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a fight televised on HBO PPV. Khan subsequently had hand surgery that required him to stay out of the ring to heal.
By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council has finally made a move and demoted Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) to WBC “Emeritus” 147 and 154lb champion. The WBC met for their Emanuel convention, and made the move in vacating the 38-year-old Mayweather’s two titles with the organization.
Mayweather gave the WBC no choice but to make the move after he said he was retiring and not coming back to the sport after his farewell fight against Andre Berto on September 12th.
AUSSIE puncher Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne says he’d be prepared to step in against the winner of the upcoming WBC heavyweight title fight between Chris Arreola and Bermane Stiverne.
Browne enhanced his standing with the Mexico City-based sanctioning body in Sheffield, England on Saturday night by blasting out Stiverne’s countryman Eric Martel Bahoeli in five rounds and he’s eager for sterner tests.
By Chris Williams: The World Boxing Council has pushed Manny Pacquiao to their No.1 spot in the welterweight rankings this month despite the fact that Pacquiao wasn’t even ranked in WBC’s top 15 before that. It looks like the WBC is trying to set it up to where Mayweather will have to fight Pacquiao if he wants to keep the WBC 147 lb. title. By pushing Pacquiao to the top spot, it’s going to give Mayweather a choice – either to fight Pacquiao or vacate the WBC’s 147 lb. title.
Pacquiao replaced Luis Carlos Abregu at #1. He was ranked at the top for a while, but Mayweather showed zero interest in fighting him. It’s unclear why the WBC ranked Abregu at the number 1 because he doesn’t have any wins over really quality opponents on his resume, and when he did step it up a little against Tim Bradley, he was beaten in 2010.