It was mentioned (albeit buried) in the Cruiserweights & Heavyweights thread (talk about a catch-all...) that Ryan Rozicki tore his bicep in training, leaving promoters scrambling to find a new opponent for WBC Cruiserweight beltholder Badou Jack on the May 3 Canelo vs. William Scull card. Fortunately, an equally credible (if lately inactive) opponent is available -- Noel Mikaelian. And even though Mikaelian's no longer a beltholder, just having this fight hopefully may nudge things a step toward the further rationalization of the Cruiser division (reigned over by Opetaia despite the alphabet-soup designations) that I've been bellyaching for in my old "Unify the Cruiserweights!" thread. Zurdo, Jack and Opetaia.... time to whittle that down. The one wrinkle for the May 3 Cruiser bout is a by-now-very wrinkly nonagenarian named Don King, who still manages to rule over Florida's boxing scene. Negotiations go thru him. (Sigh.)
Decent replacement, better than Rozicki I reckon. Just wish that they could have gotten Opetaia in for the unification.
Frankly the whole WBC Cruiserweight title situation has been ****ing ridiculous since I got into boxing. This is just another fitting chapter in a very frustrating saga. A quick rundown for those unfamiliar: In January 2022, Makabu defended his title in a rematch against Thabiso Mchunu. Consensus seems to say that this was a pretty blatant robbery. Can't speak to that personally since I never saw it, but it's worth noting. August of that same year, there's a final eliminator between Badou Jack and Richard Rivera, the latter of which had never even fought at the weight before. Despite that, he was winning the fight until the sixth, which saw a huge turn around for Jack... after the round went an extra minute, for some reason. Jack ended up winning the fight via split decision. Canelo then announces plans to have a fight with Makabu. If I recall right there was even a press conference or face off or something. I don't know for sure, I didn't watch those things then and I don't now because they're stupid. Regardless, there were serious plans in place. Eventually those plans fall through, and Makabu instead faced Badou Jack on the Tommy Fury vs. Jake Paul undercard. Jack ends up taking the title from Makabu after abusing him for 12 rounds straight. Badou Jack is inactive for most of the year, and eventually it comes out that a fight between him and Canelo was being negotiated. It fails to materialize, and eventually Jack reveals it was because Canelo wanted the fight to happen at a catchweight of 180. Jack vacates to pursue the Bridgerweight title, and then the WBC order Noel Mikaelian vs. Illunga Makabu. Mikaelian makes quicker work of Makabu than Jack did, knocking him out in just three rounds. Mikaelian spends most of 2024 getting fights with Rozicki scheduled and then canceled. The initial date in June is canceled because Mikaelian suffered a cut over his eye in camp. The September date is canceled due to promoter Don King being in the hospital. Then the December date is canceled because Noel Mikaelian was in some legal dispute with Don King. In light of the most recent cancelation, the WBC orders the Ryan Rozicki and Yamil Peralta rematch to determine an Interim champion. Considering what happened afterwards, it seems like the plan was to crown an Interim champion and then strip Mikaelian. Problem is, the bout ended in a draw. So instead of stripping Mikaelian and elevating the WBC Interim champion as originally planned, they make Mikaelian the champion in recess (essentially code for "stripping, but able to be made mandatory when/if they fight at this weight again") and reappoint Badou Jack, giving him the rare distinction of being a two time champion from a single title fight. Worth noting, Badou Jack was never able to get a fight at Bridgerweight and had long since abandoned his campaign to get a title there. He also hadn't fought since initially winning the title from Makabu. Jack is ordered to defend against Ryan Rozicki, and Michal Cieslak vs. Yamil Peralta is ordered to determine a WBC Interim champion. Four months later, there's pretty much no movement on the Cieslak-Peralta bout and Jack-Rozicki is canceled shortly after its official announcement due to Rozicki getting injured. And now the likely outcome is Badou Jack vs. Noel Mikaelian. Both men won the title in 2023; Mikaelian got the opportunity due to Jack vacating, Jack holds the title because of Mikaelian essentially being stripped, and neither has fought since their respective wins of the title in 2023. The IBF stripping Jai Opetaia for choosing to stay active and not to just sit around waiting for Mairis Briedis to be ready for a fight, only to then eventually have to order Briedis vs. Opetaia for the vacant title, seems downright quaint in comparison to all this.
Excellent post, NullaLexInk. And a reminder of just what a good thing Turki Alalshikh has been for boxing... and what a bad thing Don King has been. Gimme His Excellency over this King any day .....
Looks like it's official -- straight from the WBC's mouth (aka Don King's mouthpiece...): https://wbcboxing.com/en/badou-jack-faces-noel-mikaelian/
