WBC all for fight between Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman assures boxing fans that he and his sanctioning body will not stand in the way of a fight between heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder and WBA/IBF/WBO champion Anthony Joshua.

From Sky:

“The WBC has done everything possible to see this great fight happen. I will be thrilled to see it happen, which is a must as that is what the fans of the world want.”

Sulaiman says that the WBC are waiting on an official sanction request for a Wilder-Tyson Fury fight, since by both sides’ words that seems to be coming later this year, and also explains the mandatory situation facing Wilder (or whomever) at some point down the line.

“The mandatory challenger is Dominic Breazeale. ... Dillian Whyte is the WBC silver champion, but is not mandatory. The WBC offered him to fight a final elimination bout to enforce a second mandatory on the division against Luis Ortiz, but Whyte did not wish to fight such.”

It doesn’t sound like mandatory challenger Breazeale will be forced in before we see if we can get Joshua-Wilder in April 2019 — if both survive upcoming defenses, that is — but at some point that will have to be taken care of, anyway.

As for Whyte, he was up for a WBO eliminator and turned down the fight with Kubrat Pulev after purse bid, and he’s got the WBC silver belt which puts him in line but not at the front of it, and he might wind up rematching Dereck Chisora later this year simply because there’s not much else to do at the time. But if Wilder or Tyson Fury don’t fight Joshua next April, Whyte would seem first in line for that opportunity, too. So he’s not in a bad place overall, just an awkward spot at the moment.