WBA to recognize 3 champs at 200... super, regular and interim

According to the WBA's website, Virgil Hill, who holds the WBA regular cruiserweight titlle, will get a long delay on his mandatory defense obligation in order to fight Henry Maske, who has been inactive since 1996. Let's review: O'Neill Bell is the legitimate world champion at 200 pounds and the WBA recognizes him as a super champion. Hill won the WBA regular championship in January 2006 against Valery Brudov but has not made a mandatory defense. Hill's mandatory challenger was announced as Guillermo Jones but then the WBA dropped him and gave as a reason that he "will fight for another entity." Jones never got another fight and therefore hasn't lost to anyone, but instead of restoring Jones as the mandatory, two weeks ago, the WBA sanctioned an eliminator between Grigory Drozd and Firat Arslan, which Arslan won. Hill is now healthy, his mandatory is overdue, Arslan won the eliminator, and Maske is unranked and will not fight a tune-up, so it would seem that Hill should fight Arslan for the overdue mandatory, right?

Well, the WBA decided instead that Hill can fight Maske in a non-title bout and his madatory deadline is extended to July 1, 2007 or about 17 months after he won the title. The WBA also reduced super champion Bell's mandatory period to July 7, 2007 for the reason that the IBF stripped Bell of its title.  So what happens to Arslan, who just won the eliminator? If you're going to do an interim title, doesnt common sense say it should be the two madatories who never got thier shot, Jones vs. Arslan? Well, the WBA has now created an interim title but insteadof including Jones and Arslan, it has ordered Brudov (who lost to Hill) and Luis Pineda (who lost to Wayne Braithwaite who lost to Jones) to fight for that title. The interim titlist will then have to defend against Arslan by March of 2007. The winner of that bout will then get to fight against Hill by July 1, 2007. If anyone can figure out what will happpen if Maske defeats Hill in the non-title bout or who Bell is supposed to defend against by July 7, 2007 or what Jones did to deserve getting left out in the cold, please send Boxingtalk an e-mail.