Skip to content
Home » Jose Sulaiman on why Floyd Mayweather is still WBC champion

Jose Sulaiman on why Floyd Mayweather is still WBC champion

Some in the sport, including myself, automatically thought that the pound for pound king would be stripped of his title as he served his time at Clark County Detention Centre from June 1st to August 3rd, which failed to materialize.

As mandatory challengers Selcuk Aydin and Robert Guerrero waited in the wings, Sulaiman took a different route and created an interim title, which the WBC only use in exceptional circumstances, in order to keep Mayweather as champion.

“The WBC has not had an interim champion for a couple of years at least, but we were committed to do it with Guerrero because Floyd Mayweather went to jail and Aydin had been waiting for a longer time than the rules call for,” Sulaiman told World Boxing News.

“Also, we didn’t want to make our champion Floyd, believe that we were leaving him without our support when he has been one of the most loyal WBC champions since his very first of the five titles that he has won.

“We have kept the interim championship only for an extreme case when there is proven evidence that a champion is not able to fight within six months,” he explained.

Two-weight title holder Mayweather, 35, has until early December to declare his intentions to the WBC or at least make an appearance at the upcoming convention in Cancun if he wants to avoid losing the 147lb title.

The green belt would then go to the winner of the November 24 fight between Guerrero and former champion Andre Berto – as Guerrero came through number one contender Aydin in July on points.