According to boxing insider Jake Donovan, the President of the World Boxing Council, Mauricio Suleiman, against the backdrop of the ongoing genocide in Ukraine, which was staged by the terrorist country of the Russian Federation with the support of Belarus’ ally, decided to remove all Russian and Belarusian boxers from the ratings of the organization.
9 months late (better late than never) the decision was made due to Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.
As he writes in
Twitter reporter from the 60th WBC Convention, Suleiman allegedly announced that all boxers from these two countries “will be immediately removed from the ratings.”
At the WBC session in Acapulco, writes a Russian propaganda resource, Suleiman said that “all boxers from Russia and Belarus will be excluded from the WBC ratings, not a single fight under the auspices of the WBC will take place on the territory of these two countries, as well as a fight for WBC world title.
Wladimir Klitschko issued a base on Russia’s war against Ukraine
If this is indeed the case, then this is a specific strengthening of the WBC’s already existing decision not to sanction fights involving Russians and Belarusians.
Suleiman allegedly added that boxers have a chance to return to the WBC ratings: this will depend on “the attitude of boxers to Russia’s actions.”
Hence the question: what about the plans to arrange a fight for the absolute between Russian boxers Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF, WBO) and Dmitry Bivol (WBA)? Both of them “changed their shoes” –
amateur Kadyrov now allegedly Canadian, and Bivol goes to fight under the flag of Kyrgyzstan, but on the avatar in social networks – with the Russian one.
Otherwise, judging by the presence of Russian / Belarusian boxers in the divisions, nothing special will happen with their exclusion from the WBC lists.
Check out Usyk’s bright and huge interview in the meantime.
Recall how the troublemaker and “Russian” Roy Jones answered Klitschko in Crimea and sympathized with the children in the Russian Federation. And promoter Arum is worried that Lomachenko “does not get wounded in the war.”