Tim Tszyu and Sebastian Fundora will move forward with the conditional approval of the WBC and WBO.

Getting the two sanctioning bodies to co-exist in this scenario, however, is another matter.

Premier Boxing Champions officially confirmed Tszyu-Fundora as the March 30 PBC on Prime headliner from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Fundora (20-1-1, 13 knockouts) replaced Keith Thurman, who suffered a biceps injury and was forced to withdraw from the show.

Tszyu-Thurman was a non-title fight, since Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) was unranked and inactive since February 2022. A petition was filed for the WBO title to be at stake for Tszyu-Fundora. The move was necessary since Fundora, No. 4 at 154 by The Ring, is not ranked by the WBO.

Fundora was originally due to meet Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk (23-1, 23KOs) for the vacant WBC title in the PPV opener. Bohachuk, No. 9 at 154, now faces Brian Mendoza (22-3, 16 KOs), No. 3 at 154, for the interim WBC title. More so, Bohachuk was downgraded from PPV opener to appearing on the Prime Video free-view show.

Per a PBC press release, the WBO and vacant WBC 154-pound title are at stake for the pay-per-view main event. Both sanctioning bodies have already vowed to call a mandatory title defense for the winner. Neither has acknowledged the other’s existence for the March 30 main event, or its planned post-fight ruling.

For the WBC, that would mean a title unification bout between the Tszyu-Fundora and Bohachuk-Mendoza winners.

That fight stands little to no chance of happening given the magnitude of the WBO mandatory—Ring welterweight and pound-for-pound king Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs).

The Ring has confirmed that Crawford has enforced his ‘WBO Super Champion’ status during a visit with the sanctioning body last month in San Juan. The designation allows its claimants to immediately challenge for a WBO title at another weight class.

Crawford has not fought since his career-best, ninth-round stoppage of Errol Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) in their July 29 Ring and undisputed welterweight championship. The 36-year-old switch hitter from Omaha, Nebraska has not scheduled his next fight.

It always made sense to wait out the March 30 show. That stance is even more logical given the WBO’s plans to immediately order its mandatory title defense. There is conflicting information, however, on the time to satisfy the obligation. Valcarcel posted on X that the winner will have 180 days; representatives within the WBO have suggested a 120-day window.

WBO officials were originally prepared to sanction the fight at face value but not as a proposed unification bout. The Puerto Rico-headquartered sanctioning body took additional measures to clarify the status of Ring champ Jermell Charlo.

The WBC has declared Houston’s Charlo (35-2-1, 19KOs) as its ‘Champion in Recess’ and its full title vacant.

WBO president Francisco ‘Paco’ Valcarcel publicly confirmed that his organization still views Charlo as the WBC champ. Given that, the vacant title is considered a secondary belt in this scenario.

A comparison has been made to the August 2019 Vasiliy Lomachenko-Luke Campbell lightweight title fight. Lomachenko defended his IBF and WBO belts and was permitted to fight for—and win—the vacant WBC title. Mikey Garcia was regarded as ‘Champion Emeritus’ at the time and publicly declared that he would campaign at a heavier weight. WBO rankings listed the WBC title as vacant dating back to June 2019 as a result.

Charlo has yet to publicly declare his next move.

The WBO was the first to remove its title from his undisputed championship reign. The move was made for failure to defend versus Sydney’s Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs), No. 1 at 154. Charlo instead moved up two divisions in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Ring and undisputed 168-pound king Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs).

The event was billed as ‘Undisputed vs. Undisputed,’ though purely for marketing purposes. Charlo was permitted to enter the ring with all four sanctioning bodies in tow. He was stripped of the WBO belt by the opening bell.

Tszyu was immediately upgraded to full from interim titlist as a result. The move came two weeks ahead of his October 15 points win over Mendoza in Broadbeach, Australia.

The next defense will come versus Fundora, who now fight for two titles despite having not fought since a knockout loss nearly a year ago.

Despite the insistence of a WBC title consolidation up next, recent history suggests it will never see the light of day.

The WBC remains the most well-intended sanctioning body. Follow through, however, remains an issue. Two examples involve PBC fighters both at 160 and 168.

David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), No. 1 at 168, has held the interim WBC 168-pound title since May 2022. The WBC has never come close to enforcing a title consolidation bout versus Guadalaraja’s Alvarez.

Worse, Benavidez is now forced to fight for an interim WBC 175-pound title in hopes of a full title shot. The theory is that a win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk would provide a direct path to the light heavyweight title. Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol are due to meet on June 1 for the undisputed championship.

The drawback to this scenario is Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) satisfied the WBC mandatory. It came in a January 13 knockout win over Callum Smith (29-2, 21 KOs). Therefore, Benavidez would actually be last in queue at 175.

At 160, Jermall Charlo and Carlos Adames both claim ties to the WBC title. The sanctioning body has refused to rule on Charlo’s gross inactivity at the weight. His last title defense was in June 2022. Just one fight has followed, a points win over Jose Benavidez Jr. last November 25 in a super middleweight bout.

In fairness, Adames is hardly doing his part to justify an upgrade. The No. 2 Ring-rated middleweight won the interim WBC title in October 2022. He’s only fought since then, a ninth-round stoppage of Julian Williams last June 24 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Charlo and Adames both fight under the PBC banner. Neither one currently has a fight scheduled.

Theoretically, Bohachuk should have more of a say than Fundora in the WBC 154-pound title conversation. The Ukrainian knockout has won five straight fights and is ranked one spot above Fundora in the most recent WBC rankings. Charles Conwell (18-0, 13 KOs) is ahead of both, but has been inactive since November 2022. Conwell recently signed with Golden Boy Promotions, who has yet to announce his next fight.

There stands a greater chance the Bohachuk-Mendoza winner will be ordered to fight Conwell than for the full WBC title. Those odds increase if Crawford is in fact prepared to make a run to become a four-division champ.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JakeNDaBox

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