Badou Jack has been reinstated as WBC cruiserweight champion while Noel Mikaelian deals with legal issues
With the fall of Mahmoud Charr this past weekend, I lost my purpose as a sportswriter. Never did I think I would find a similarly moronic saga to latch onto in lieu of developing a personality or any skills that meaningfully improve the world. Luckily, the WBC answered my prayers.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Back in February of last year, former super middleweight champion and light heavyweight kinda-champion Badou Jack (28-3-3, 17 KO) sprang an upset of WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu, who’d been teased as a potential foe for Canelo Alvarez before it all went wrong.
Rather than parlay that victory into a payday, Jack elected to sit on the belt for a bit before announcing his intention to try for a “bridgerweight” belt against Lukasz Rozanski, prompting the WBC to name him champion-in-recess.
While that fight slowly died on the vine, the WBC did a WBC thing and chucked Makabu right back into a title fight against Noel Mikaelian/Mikaelyan/Gevor, who had in fact been tabbed to fight Makabu the previous January before it came to light that manager Don King straight-up lied about the matchup even being discussed. The two finally met in November and Mikaelyan took less than three rounds to demolish “Junior” and lift the title.
This teed up a mandatory defense against knockout artist, domestic abuser, and murder advocate Ryan Rozicki. I’ll let the WBC explain things:
Champion Mikaelian’s promoter of record, Don King Promotions, contracted the Mikaelian vs Rozicki fight to take place in Miami on June 7, 2024. Unfortunately, Champion Mikaelian sustained a sparring injury just 10 days before that fight.
DKP rescheduled the fight for September 28, 2024 also in Miami. Very unfortunately, DKP’s principal Don King experienced health issues severed enough not to be able to promote the event.
After thoroughly evaluating all the facts and having engaged in numerous communications with both camps, the WCB ordered a purse bid for the Mikaelian vs Rozicki bout. 3 Lion Promotions attended the purse bid ceremony which did not have to take place as both camps informed the WBC that they had reached an agreement. The fight was then scheduled for December 7 in Canada. 3Lions Promotions produced bout contracts, contracted the Arena, arranged for broadcast production, and incurred other substantial expenses. After all that effort, now it turns out that Champion Mikaelian is unavailable to participate in the fight against Rozicki due to an ongoing legal dispute with his promoter Don King Productions.
The WBC Board of Governors has voted unanimously to support the petition from 3 Lion Promotions to approve an interim championship between Rozicki and the #2 contender Yamil Peralta from Argentina. That bout is a rematch of their highly controversial fight back in 2022. The Rozicki Vs Peralta fight for the WBC Interim World Cruiserweight title will take place on December 7 in Canada.
“Controversial” is a bit of an understatement, by the way; the decision was so bad that, for the first time I can recall, the WBC actually refused to give Rozicki the “international title” at stake. Their rematch wasn’t quite that level of debacle, but it did result in a majority draw, leaving the interim belt vacant as well.
Today, as part of their annual convention, the sanctioning body elected to swap Jack’s and Mikaelian’s places, leaving “The Ripper” once again a world champion at the age of 41. He’ll make his inaugural defense against Rozicki while Peralta takes on Michal Cieslak, who’s picked up six straight knockouts since stinking out the join against Lawrence Okolie in 2022, for the interim belt.
Why do they need an interim belt when they’ve already set up the next actual title fight? Hell if I know. Clown shoes for everyone. If it means Opetaia and Zurdo get a real shot at going for undisputed at some point, I’ll take it.
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