WBO orders four-man tourney for vacant light heavyweight title

By Scott Shaffer

21/01/2020

WBO orders four-man tourney for vacant light heavyweight title

According to Gustavo Olivieri,attorney for the WBO, the sanctioning organization is planning a four-man tournament for its light heavyweight championship. The title was recently vacated by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, the world middleweight champion who made boxing history by jumping up two weight classes to knock out Sergey Kovalev for the WBO 175-pound title. Canelo Alvarez has not announced his next fight yet, but apparently intends to compete at super middleweight or middleweight in his next bout. To fill the vacancy, the WBO has ordered two fights so far: Umar Salamov vs. Maxim Vlasov and former IBF super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez vs. former WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez.

The first fight seems easy enough to make, as both Salamov and Vlasov are promoted by Dmitriy Salita. The second fight does not seem likely to happen, as Eleider Alvarez is expected to fight Joe Smith next, and Ramirez is known to be feuding with his promoter, Top Rank. Smith is rated #5 by the WBO, so if Ramirez passes, or is unable to take the fight, Eleider Alvarez vs. Joe Smith could become the other semi-final.  Boxingtalk will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.