Mairis Briedis-Yuniel Dorticos to have WBC title at stake

By Badlefthook

The fight is tentatively planned for NovemberBy Patrick L. Stumberg

With former cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk now plying his craft at heavyweight, the WBC elected to sanction the Super Series semifinal between “diamond” champ Mairis Briedis and Krzysztof Glowacki as a vacant title fight. It ultimately withdrew the sanction in a dispute with the WBSS and WBO over the ring officials, which proved prophetic after WBO-appointed referee Robert Byrd fouled things up something fierce, but WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman tells ESPN that whoever wins between Briedis and Yuniel Dorticos will be named WBC champion, making the fight a three-belt unification.

Sulaiman actually told ESPN Deportes about this a couple weeks back, but I missed it. Oops.

As stated, Briedis (26-1, 19 KO) is the “diamond” champ, while Dorticos (24-1, 22 KO) is the top contender, so it’s not just arbitrarily tacked-on gravitas.

Both men had some early trouble in the Super Series; Briedis took a questionable decision over Noel Gevor, while Dorticos had to go the distance for just the second time in his career against skilled Polish veteran Mateusz Masternak. They proved their destructive potential in the semifinals, though, as Briedis claimed the WBO belt with a wild knockout of Glowacki and Dorticos leveled Andrew Tabiti with one of the year’s nastiest right hands to win the vacant IBF belt.

As far as the remaining title, the erstwhile WBA “super” belt, it’s currently held by former champion-in-recess Denis Lebedev, whose mandated bout with “regular” champ Arsen Goulamirian appears to be collapsing over the purse size.