The World Boxing Association (WBA) has ordered a bout between American WBA super featherweight champion Lamont Roach Jr. and recently-crowned WBA interim champion Albert Batyrgaziev from Russia. Batyrgaziev reigned supreme in a victory over the previous designated mandatory challenger, Irish fighter Jono Carroll, where he won the interim title and can now further call himself the mandatory contender of the division. The two fighters have until August 22nd to settle an agreement for a fight, whereafter purse bid proceedings will be ordered if they fail to do so.
The WBA’s decision to introduce the interim title for the July 12th fight between Albert Batyrgaziev (11-0, 8 KO’s) and Jono Carroll (24-3-1, 7 KO’s) still seems out of place given the winner of their bout—Batyrgaziev, who won by technical knockout (TKO)—has now been acknowledged as the mandatory contender.
The sanctioning body had previously ordered Batyrgaziev and Carroll to vie for the interim title, which caused a sense of confusion given it had only been explicitly stated that their bout was an interim title fight, rather than a final eliminator1.
Prior to that, the WBA had actually already made Carroll a mandatory challenger in February and was supposed to have ordered Carroll and Lamont Roach Jr. to start negotiations for a mandated bout. However, this mandate never emerged, and several months later, Carroll was pitted against Batyrgaziev instead.
While Albert Batyrgaziev has earned his position as the new mandatory challenger to the WBA super featherweight (130 lbs) title, there are still unresolved issues pertaining to this decision with #1 WBA 130 lbs contender, Georgian fighter Otar Eranosyan (14-0, 7 KO’s), still waiting for an opportunity after he had been expected to face the winner of Roach Jr.-Carroll.
Clearly, the WBA’s handling of the 130 lbs division has been sub-par, to say the least, starting with Carroll who had technically been the mandatory challenger for years after winning a final eliminator in 2021, only for the WBA to finally acknowledge him as such three years later.
The only good part of this entire fiasco is that Batyrgaziev has managed to earn his position through merit, but at the same time, Eranosyan will be prevented from an opportunity until the ordered Roach Jr.-Batyrgaziev match has concluded―if it actually takes place.
Either way, the WBA still seems incapable of progressing the rankings organically, denying opportunities to certain fighters on one hand while handing those same opportunities to other fighters that have yet to prove their worth. Though Albert Batyrgaziev appears to be the prime candidate for Lamont Roach Jr. (25-1-1, 10 KO’s), his ascent to the mandatory challenger position seems more a result of inefficient bureaucracy and organization on the WBA’s part, which might affect Batyrgaziev himself in the long run if he manages to become the WBA super featherweight champion.
Ideally, had the WBA stuck to its own rules, Carroll would either already be the WBA champion or would be seeking to climb up the rankings after failing to conquer the WBA title. In that scenario, Lamont Roach Jr. would have likely still emerged as the champion but would then need to face either Batyrgaziev or Eranosyan, who could have been ordered to face each other in a final eliminator, thereby drawing a stronger competitive run for the eventual winner and making them even more suited to being in the position of a mandatory challenger.
Other alternatives could have similarly employed a way for those in line to vie for the title to do so without compromising the opportunities of other fighters. This is evident by the way in which Lamont Roach Jr. was mysteriously allowed a voluntary defense against Feargal McCrory (16-1-1, 8 KO’s) last month rather than any of the other suitable candidates including Batyrgaziev, #1-rated Eranosyan and Carroll [who Roach Jr. was expected to face in a mandatory title defense].
- Final eliminators are bouts that determine the mandatory challenger of a division, pertaining to a specific sanctioning body’s world title. ↩︎
