Jose Luis Camarillo of notifight.com and BoxingScene.com reports that Erik Morales' September 17 fight could well be for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title. With Timothy Bradley inactive, Morales has filed a formal request to fight for the belt, and the WBC has sent the request to its board for approval.

The 34-year-old Morales (51-7, 35 KO) will be facing Argentina's Jorge Barrios (50-4-1, 35 KO) on the Mayweather vs Ortiz undercard on HBO PPV, from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Currently, Morales is ranked as the No. 3 contender to the title by the WBC. Barrios has never fought above lightweight, where he has no notable fights. He is unranked in any division by the WBC.

In other words, the WBC approving this fight for the vacant belt would again show incredible bias. Currently, Ajose Olusegun (WBC #2 contender) and Ali Chebah (WBC #6 contender) are scheduled to fight an eliminator on September 30. By any fair standard (while taking into consideration the limitations of boxing matchmaking and whatnot) if they're going to strip Timothy Bradley of his title, that should be bumped to a vacant title fight.

If the WBC approves the title fight, and Morales wins, he will technically be the first Mexican fighter to ever win major, non-interim titles in four weight classes. Considering how hard so many -- including Morales -- have fought over the years only to come up short running down that dream, it would feel just a little cheap for it to happen this way. But then again, maybe that's perfect for today's boxing climate. After years of people caring about that, everyone just gets a cheap, manufactured knockoff of what it could have been.