Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua needs to get a special designated for a WBC title challenge with Tyson Fury for reasons twofold.
The first is that Joshua is unrated by the World Boxing Council due to fighting under three other sanctioning bodies for the past six years.
Any boxer fighting under the WBA, WBO, or IBF automatically gets removed by the WBC Ratings Committee.
Anthony Joshua needs a WBC ranking
Now that Joshua is free of those other organizations, the Briton will get rated by the WBC. He should feature in the heavyweight rankings for September.
So that’s one problem solved in a matter of weeks. However, the other is those two losses to Oleksandr Usyk.
The WBC doesn’t usually allow a fighter to challenge their champion on the back of a defeat. Therefore, like Deontay Wilder, he would need a contracted rematch or special ratification from the WBC.
Wilder’s trilogy stipulation in the paperwork for Fury ensured his second attempt to win back the green and gold strap. Despite losing badly in seven rounds to Fury when giving up his belt, Wilder had the necessary ink dry on the contract to push through his next challenge.
Joshua has no such privilege and is coming into any Fury chance blind and unrated for six years. Luckily for Joshua, the WBC still has the policy to consider any application.
Tyson Fury WBC voluntary option
On merit, they may well find in favor of AJ and rate him in the top fifteen. This scenario gives Fury a voluntary option to select his main British rival.
The WBC rules read: “To fulfill their requirement to defend the title regularly in a timely manner, champions shall propose voluntary defenses against Qualified Challengers as defined.
“No bout shall qualify as a voluntary defense other than as permitted by the WBC in accordance with these Rules and Regulations.
“Unification bouts with champions of other organizations recognized by the WBC must be specifically requested and may be approved, denied, or made subject to special conditions by the WBC in its sole discretion.”
Special Bout Sanction
Under “Special Bout Sanction” section 3.8, the WBC states: “Under special circumstances, such as a match involving an elite contender, a unification bout, or another match that the WBC determines in its sole discretion would be in the best interests of boxing.
“The WBC may order and/or sanction such bout as either a voluntary or mandatory defense. The WBC may order that such a special bout take precedence over and occur before any previously designated mandatory defense.
“Under the circumstances set forth in the preceding paragraph, any previously-designated mandatory challenge may be ordered by the WBC:
“(i) to occur immediately after the special bout with no intervening bout.
“(ii) to be rescheduled to occur after one or more voluntary bouts.
“(iii) postponed by the WBC until such time as the champion is required to defend against his next mandatory challenger. This includes any extensions that the WBC may grant in accordance with these Rules and Regulations.”
Those rules highlighted by WBN mean good news for Anthony Joshua and why any application by his team would likely get approval from the WBC under exceptional circumstances.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
