Terence Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) has been stripped of his WBC super-middleweight title, and Hamzah Sheeraz (22-1, 18 KOs) will fight for the vacant belt.
British contender Sheeraz will fight Christian Mbilli for the super-middleweight gold.
The WBC insist that Crawford was stripped for failing to pay their sanctioning fees.
He won the undisputed super-middleweight championship against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez earlier this year but has now had the WBC belt taken away.
The WBC insist that, from Crawford’s reported $50 million pay-day from fighting Canelo, they gave him a discount from 3 percent to 0.6 percent on their sanctioning fees.
They insist he was put on notice for not paying his fees from his past two fights, against Israil Madrimov and Canelo.
They confirmed: “The WBC sent multiple communications to Champion Crawford, his manager, and his legal counsel. “Very unfortunately, the WBC did not receive an acknowledgment of receipt nor any response to any of those communications. The WBC had no choice but to act.”
Crawford has held world championships in five divisions, and been undisputed in three classes, while building a sublime undefeated record.
Hamzah Sheeraz to fight for WBC super-middleweight title
Sheeraz has the opportunity to become Britain’s next world champion when he fights for the title that has been stripped from Crawford.
He must beat Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs), a Cameroon-born and Canada-based contender.
Sheeraz impressively stopped Edgar Berlanga earlier this year having moved to the super-middleweight division.
Previously, Sheeraz had a shot at the WBC middleweight title but could only draw against Carlos Adames.
He lost his first pro fight but has since won 22 in a row.
