Huck-Briedis to fight for full WBC cruiserweight title

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: As I predicted, the World Boxing Council has designated that Marco Huck and Mairis Briedis will fight for the full WBC cruiserweight title this Saturday night on April 1 following change of title status for champion Tony Bellew. Due to Bellew’s hand injury that he sustained in his win over David Haye on March 4, he won’t be able to defend his title for some time. It’s good the WBC has made this move because Bellew might have sat on his title for months without vacating it.

The WBC has decided to make Bellew the Emeritus champion, which means he can fight for the title in the future when he decides he’s ready. In the meantime, Huck (40-3-1, 27 KOs) will be fighting for the full WBC cruiserweight title on Saturday night.

Before the WBC’s news announcement today about Bellew being appointed Emeritus champion, Huck and Briedis (21-0, 18 KOs) were to be fighting for interim WBC cruiserweight title. However, it seemed obvious that the WBC was going to make Bellew an emeritus champion due to his hand injury he suffered against Haye.

Bellew recently said that he wouldn’t be able to fight until possibly December. That would be a very long time to make the winner of the Huck-Briedis fight to wait for a shot at the WBC belt. As such, the WBC made the right move in making Bellew an emeritus champion so that the WBC title becomes vacant. There’s a lot of talk that Bellew could be fighting at heavyweight in his next fight rather than coming back down to cruiserweight to defend against Huck or Briedis.

Here’s what the WBC said about Briedis vs. Huck being for their full WBC cruiserweight title:

“The WBC hereby confirms that the fight between Mairis Briedis and Marco Huck that will take place this coming April 1st in Germany, will be for the WBC cruiserweight championship of the world and the winner will abide by the ruling of the WBC Board regarding the mandatory defenses.”

So there it is, folks. Bellew now the emeritus champion and Briedis and Huck will be fighting for the vacant WBC title. I can’t say I’m surprised. Heck, even if the WBC didn’t designate Bellew as the Emeritus champion, I don’t think he ever intends on coming back down to cruiserweight. If the WBC allowed Bellew to sit on his cruiserweight title until his injury heals, I think it’s extremely doubtful that he would ever defend the belt. It would be a waste of the winner of the Huck-Briedis’ time to be sitting and doing nothing while they’re waiting for the full WBC title to given to one of them.