WBA vacates Josh Taylor’s world title after no response on mandatory order

Undisputed junior welterweight champion — well, now-former undisputed champion — Josh Taylor is one belt lighter now as the WBA has announced that they have relieved Taylor of their belt.

The sanctioning body had ordered Taylor to make a mandatory title defense against Alberto Puello but said they received no official response indicating Taylor was willing to take the fight, thus leading them to strip Taylor of the 140-pound world title.

Taylor, however, took to Twitter to counter the WBA’s claim of him being ‘stripped’ of the title, saying he actually voluntarily vacated the belt.

Either way you want to look at it, Taylor no longer holds the WBA’s world title and it’s expected that he’ll soon be making the move to welterweight, especially since he’s been chirping back-and-forth with Jack Catterall over his much disputed win, referring to himself as being weight drained at 140.

And so it appears this is the first chip to fall in the 140 lb division, as Taylor’s departure will put all four world titles back up for grabs.