Poland's Michal Cieslak has ascended to the WBC cruiserweight championship in a bizarre tale of boxing politics. Noel Mikaelian held the WBC's 200-pound title until last weekend, when he was stopped by Jai Opetaia on a Zuffa Boxing show in Las Vegas. Zuffa has previoulsy stated an intention to recognize its own champions rather than the champions of the four traditional sanctioning bodies (WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA). As a result of this plan, one of Zuffa's biggest stars, Opetaia has become collateral damage. Earlier this year, Opetaia got stripped of the IBF cruiserweight title just before a Zuffa show and now he is being refused recognition by the WBC despite beating its reigning champion, Mikaelian. Instead, the WBC announced it would e-mail its championship to Cieslak, a 28-2 cruiserweight who held the WBC's interim title thanks to his win over faded ex-light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal.

 

The WBC's ruling, issued on Monday, gets even more confusing: the sanctioning body also ordered Cieslak to make a mandatory defense against David Benavidez, who holds the WBA and WBO championships. Benavidez will certainly be a betting favorite against Cieslak. (The IBF title remains vacant as the Australian Opetaia has filed a United States federal lawsuit to get it back). The WBC further ordered that the winner of the Benavidez vs. Cieslak bout (who, assuming the WBO and WBA cooperate, would become a three-belt champion) must then face Opetaia in his next fight.