Hot on the heels of Demetrius Andrade putting out a public statement confirming his desire to be part of the competition, top ten ranked Jorge Cota and John Jackson have joined new WBC silver champion Charles Hatley on the shortlist at 154.
Hatley dropped Anthony Mundine multiple times on his way to an eleventh round stoppage in Australia on Wednesday and is now in the mix to be involved in the series to find a natural successor to former title holder Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“During the Convention, Don Majeski asked whether the Charles Hatley v Anthony Mundine fight could be part of this tournament but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to make it possible and we didn’t want to rush things,” Sulaiman exclusively told World Boxing News.
“That result of the fight in itself is a formidable result and Hatley has confirmed he wants to part of the process – so that’s a major step for the super welterweights. Immediately, Jorge Cota, John Jackson also confirmed they wanted to be part of it, and obviously Hatley.
“We have an initial report that many of the ranked fighters are interested and I am sure this going to be innovative and very interesting for everybody.
“We are very excited that things will go as expected and we will get great results with this tournament,” he added.
Only four fighters placed in the top ten have so far thrown their hats into the ring for the WBC belt tournament, which Sulaiman previously explained to WBN he wants to involve eight fighters in the quarter-final style cup format.
That means the likes of Jermell Charlo, Vanes Martirosyan, Austin Trout, Julian Williams and Sergey Rabchenko will get first refusal on places in the lucrative event, which could kick-off as early as January 2016 and last one year.
Should four out of those five refuse the invitation, the WBC will then be looking at the likes of Ishe Smith, Joshua Clottey, Cedriv Vitu, Willie Nelson and Matthew Macklin – all of whom are further down the pecking order.
