E-mailed the belt. A tad of a karmic justice for the Makabu fight some considere a robbery in Kinshasha.
Wasn't the Okolie fight closer than advertised, too? I didn't watch it but I thought someone said so. I do think it is a little odd how they are just giving belts away, now.
I think it has more to do with Noel fighting a Zuffa signed Opetaia. It was always Cieślak-Benavidez for the vacant belt, or Cieślak elevated.
Jai Opetaia beat the reigning WBC Cruiserweight champ on the weekend. Stopped him inside the distance. The WBC should stop polishing the knobs of Mexican Americans & send him a belt.
From a sporting perspective maybe somewhat undeserved, but from a commercial perspective the WBC are obviously not going to sanction fights under a organisation intent on their destruction. Boxers who have signed for Zuffa, or fight in a Zuffa promoted card, cannot object to a hard shoulder shown by the sanctioning bodies when Zuffa's raison d'etre is the destruction of those same sanctioning bodies.
The WBC sanctioned a fight on the weekend involving Ryan Garcia & a Zuffa fighter. They're sanctioning fights based on two criteria: 1. Money & 2. The racial ethnicity of the fighters involved.
The Zuffa belt wasn’t on the line for Garcia-Benn tho so it makes sense that the WBC would sanction that fight and not the Opetaia fight.
The reason the WBC belt wasn't on the line in the Opetaia v Noel Mikaelian fight is b/c the WBC wants to gift it to David Benavidez. No other reason.
Cieslak has been elevated but as the WBC have mandated Cieslak-Benavidez, they might just as well be fighting for the vacant title.
Feel like belts mean nothing anymore there are some terrible boxers out there getting to call themselves world champs
Mexican-Americans sell tickets and PPV buys. Australians don't. It's lame as hell and the WBC sucks, but that's why. If Jai Opetaia from Australia were Juan Ochoa from Texas, he'd be a huge draw.