Swedish cruiserweight Badou Jack has inexplicably relinquished his WBC cruiserweight title and been placed as the champion-in-recess. The decision by Jack draws quite a lot of questions given he is rumored to face WBC bridgerweight champion Lukasz Rozanski. The bridgerweight division is notably a division created by the WBC and is not recognized by other sanctioning bodies and other official institutions within boxing.
Bridgerweight fights do count on a competing boxer’s records, but they are considered to be heavyweight fights according to official records. Bridgerweight champions are also not recognized by any of the other sanctioning bodies or other boxing institutions, and the pool in the division is severely limited, pertaining to just twenty-six fighters ranked by the WBC. The weight in the division is set between 200 and 224 lbs, or 90 and 101 kg.
Badou Jack’s (28-3-3, 17 KO’s) decision is highly-questionable after he won the WBC cruiserweight title in February of this year only to move up to bridgerweight. In early July, it was first reported by The Ring Boxing Magazine that Badou Jack would be fighting Polish WBC bridgerweight champion Lukasz Rozanski (15-0, 14 KO’s) for his title.
Though this fight has not been officially announced yet, Jack’s current status as the champion-in-recess seems to indicate the reports are true, and this has further been supported by the fact the WBC cruiserweight title will be fought over on November 4th by Ilunga Makabu (29-, 25 KO’s) and Noel Gevor Mikaelyan (26-2, 11 KO’s).
The Ring additionally reported that the fight between Jack and Rozanski would have to take place before November 30th. Presumably, this fight will take place in Saudi Arabia.
Jack’s decision to fight for a title in a division that’s not recognized by other sanctioning bodies while he already had a legitimate world title seems like an extremely odd turn of events. Speculatively, the supposed fight that is set to occur in Saudi Arabia has some sort of monetary value, more so than being a cruiserweight world champion in any case.
While the WBC will be heavily content with their division remaining active, there is no real benefit to boxing as a whole. Most of the bridgerweight division exists out of heavyweights or cruiserweights, Achieving success in this division has not seemingly guaranteed these boxers any real acknowledgement or opportunities as the bridgerweight division remains unrecognized. Oscar Rivas, a former heavyweight contender that went on to fight highly-rated British heavyweight Dillian Whyte, has not exactly risen to the upper echelon of the heavyweight division.
Lukasz Rozanski himself, a heavyweight before he entered the bridgerweight division, has not managed to make any notable impact in the heavyweight division after winning the bridgerweight title in April this year.
It is therefore unlikely that Badou Jack’s career will benefit in any other manner than monetarily, and his bridgerweight fight will count on his professional record thus it allows him to stay active. However, the fact he lost his WBC cruiserweight title already indicates the impact fighting in the bridgerweight division can have.
Despite these odd circumstances and the fact that the bridgerweight division seems to have sprung into life because of the need to curry favor with the public―evident by naming it after a six-year old child hero, Badou Jack will remain the WBC cruiserweight champion-in-recess which will allow him to challenge the winner of Makabu-Mikaelyan, thus preventing him from truly sidetracking his long and accomplished boxing career.
