World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has revealed that his organization has sanctioned two fights in the light heavyweight division.
First, he sanctioned a world title fight between WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) and once-beaten challenger Badou Jack (22-1-2, 13 KOs), who moved up from super middleweight last year.
And the second fight sanctioned is a final eliminator between undefeated contenders Eleider Alvarez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Jack, who previously held the WBC super middleweight title, moved up to 175 last August when he knocked out Nathan Cleverly to capture the WBA world title at light heavyweight.
He vacated that belt not long after, to pursue the fight with Stevenson.
Stevenson was under an order to fight Alvarez, but managed to work out a deal with the sanctioning body to face Jack.
Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs) has been the mandatory challenger to Stevenson for the last two years and went through at least three final eliminators. He was paid a handsome step-aside fee to allow Stevenson-Jack to go forward. In 2017 he packed in wins over former world champions Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute.
On the other, Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs) is a rising force in the division, but Alvarez will by far be his biggest step up in class.
Gvozdyk got in big knockout wins over Craig Baker, Isaac Chilemba and Yunieski Gonzalez in his last three fights. Because Gvodzyk is promoted by Top Rank, it will be interesting to see if his fight with Alvarez will land on ESPN or land as a co-featured Showtime bout to Stevenson vs. Jack.
"Champion Adonis Stevenson will fight former WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in a highly-anticipated match. Mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez will fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC interim title, due to the fact that the mandatory defense has been delayed for several reasons. Both winners must fight immediately after their matches," said Sulaiman.
2023-10-20 06:36:02
