The WBA continues a desperate purge of ratings – they are finally trying to make sure that there is one world champion left in each weight category.
Yesterday the title of “super champion” was taken away from the legend of the second flyweight (up to 52.2 kg) Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), and today it was reported that only one WBA title holder remained in the cruiserweight (up to 90, 7 kg).
The Belgian Riyad Merhi (30-1, 25 KOs) abandoned his “usual” belt, as he did not want to fight in rematch with the organization’s “super champion” Frenchman Arsen Gulamiryan (26-0, 18 KOs), whom he lost by technical knockout in 2018 . Formally, the reason for the refusal is the transition to heavyweight (over 90.7 kg).
Earlier, Merhi signed a co-promotion contract with the Russians from RCC, planned to defend the title with the local Olympic champion Evgeny Tishchenko, but the show in Yekaterinburg did not take place due to sanctions.
It’s funny that at the same time, Gulamiryan has not held a title defense since 2019.
Soon, only one featherweight champion (up to 57.2 kg) will remain in the organization. The situation in the duel between the WBA Super champion Leo Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) from Mexico (38-2-1, 19 KOs) and the owner of the WBA World belt from Briton Lee Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) was unexpectedly resolved.
Yesterday, at the last moment, promotional auctions were canceled, as the parties managed to agree amicably. This is surprising, given that boxers compete for competing promoters – Santa Cruz fights for RVS Al Haymon and TGB Tom Brown, and Wood is playing for the team Matchroom Boxing Eddie Hearn.
It is known that the Santa Cruz vs Wood fight will take place on November 5 or 12 as part of the show from RVS/TGB. The venue has not been announced. This information will appear within the next 2 weeks. We are almost certainly talking about America – presumably the show will be held in Nevada, California or Texas.
Activity in the ranks of the WBA is due, among other things, to several major scandals and serious problems in a row. But the organization planned to return to the United States, closer to big money.
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