It has been confirmed how the WBO has ordered unbeaten heavyweight contenders Andy Ruiz Jnr and Joseph Parker to fight for the vacant title, with the fight expected to be officially announced for New Zealand on December 10. This news came from Puerto Rico, where the WBO are currently holding their convention.
Parker, unbeaten at 21-0(18) will have home advantage, while Mexican/American Ruiz Jnr, 29-0(19) will be having his first fight outside of America since 2013, when he boxed Tor Hamer in China. A solid match-up, Parker-Ruiz will contest the title that has been stripped from the troubled Tyson Fury. But another British heavyweight will get the chance to win the WBO belt next year, as the WBO has also ordered how the winner of Ruiz-Parker must defend against David Haye within 120 days of their fight.
Haye, the former WBA heavyweight champ, is still to announce his Dec 10 opponent, but with a WBO title shot in his near future, Haye may not risk things by taking on anyone he deems too dangerous – and it looks as though Tony Bellew will have to wait quite a long time if he is to get that fight he wants with Haye.
So that’s the WBO belt sorted out for the coming months, what about the WBA title? With the organisation set to make a decision tomorrow on whether or not it will sanction the Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko fight, we should know more about the future of the heavyweight division during this, a confusing time for the big men of the sport.
Speaking of WBC cruiserweight champion Bellew, he said today that his “dream fight” is a unification with Denis Lebedev, the current WBA and IBF champion (set to defend against dangerous and unbeaten puncher Murat Gassiev on Dec 3rd) and that he would then face Haye up at heavyweight. Who knows, it could be that Bellew and Haye clash for the WBO heavyweight title next summer?
That one would almost certainly be a big deal in the UK.
