Irish former IBF world title challenger Jono Carroll has been appointed as the WBA mandatory challenger in the super featherweight/junior lightweight division after petitioning the WBA for a chance against the division’s WBA current champion. With Lamont Roach Jr. currently in possession of the WBA 140 lbs title, the WBA has subsequently mandated a title bout between the two super featherweights and included a condition for the winner of the two to fight #1-ranked (on the WBA’s 140 lbs ranking boards) Georgian contender Otar Eranosyan.
Jono Carroll’s (24-2-1, 7 KO’s) first world title opportunity goes back almost five years when he challenged the incumbent IBF super featherweight champion at the time, Tevin Farmer (33-5-1, 7 KO’s), for his title in 2019. Carroll ultimately ended up losing that match by unanimous decision (UD) and has since then worked hard to claw his way back to the top.
However, confusion surrounds the long overdue decision by the WBA to appoint Carroll as the mandatory challenger at 130 lbs due to there having already been an established mandatory contender in Otar Eranosyan (14-0, 7 KO’s) who defeated former WBA champion Roger Guttierez (27-5-1, 21 KO’s) in an elimination match last year to supposedly become the WBA 130 lbs mandatory challenger.
Jono Carroll has now taken Eranosyan’s place as the mandatory challenger due to winning an elimination bout in 2021 against Andy Vences (23-5-1, 12 KO’s). Currently, the circumstances on why Carroll was not given an opportunity to become a world champion earlier are unknown, as despite then-WBA champion Roger Guttierez fought an entirely different opponent in Hector Luis Garcia who would subsequently end up becoming the WBA super featherweight champion. Carroll himself was active throughout this period against lower-tier opposition while waiting for an opportunity that would arrive nearly three years later.
To the WBA’s credit, they did admit their mistake which has resulted in Carroll being ratified as the new mandatory challenger after the Irishman had appealed for the opportunity, but there are still plenty of question marks surrounding the WBA’s decision making when it comes to ordering eliminator and mandatory matches. This is exemplified in their decision to turn the bout between Chris Colbert and Hector Garcia in February of 2022 into an eliminator match, which resulted in Garcia becoming the mandatory challenger. Garcia went on to defeat then-incumbent WBA champion Roger Guttierez in August of 2022 to become the new WBA super featherweight champion.
During this period in which the WBA title switched hands from Guttierez to Garcia, Carroll had still been active and had fought roughly five months prior to Garcia becoming the WBA champion, and continued to fight just four months after.
Oddly enough, a month before Guttierez and Garcia faced each other in the ring, Lamont Roach Jr. (24-1-1, 9 KO’s) suddenly became the mandatory challenger after defeating Angel Rodriguez (21-3, 11 KO’s) on July 16th in 2022 in a match that was also ruled an eliminator/elimination bout.
To put everything in perspective, three mandatory challengers arose following Carroll’s elimination bout victory over Andy Vences on September 11th in 2021, and the WBA title switched hands twice during this period all before Carroll could even sniff at a chance to have a crack at whoever was the WBA super featherweight champion at the time.
Currently, Roach Jr. is the WBA 130 lbs champion after defeating Hector Garcia last year with Otar Eranosyan having emerged as the mandatory challenger as of August 9th in 2023 when he defeated Roger Guttierez.
In essence, it means there are currently two mandatory challengers in the division; one being Jono Carroll who has now been ordered to face Lamont Roach Jr., while Eranosyan will be waiting for an opportunity to face the winner between Carroll and Roach.
The WBA’s most recent order of this new mandatory match-up will see the teams of the two fighters negotiate for a period of 30 days (presumably from February 9th to March 10th) after which purse bid proceedings will occur if the two teams fail to reach an agreement.
Additionally, the winner of this newly mandated bout must subsequently engage in another mandatory match against Otar Eranosyan within 120 days or 4 months. Ideally, the WBA would best serve this division by not ordering another eliminator bout or mandatory match from this period up until the winner of Roach Jr-Carroll has been decided, and the follow-up match with Eranosyan has concluded.
