After the news of Gennady Golovkin dropping his last and remaining WBA belt following the organization’s command for Golovkin to face Erislandy Lara, the sanctioning body has mandated another fight; this time between WBA ‘Regular’ world champion Erislandy Lara and Australian #1 contender on the WBA rankings, Michael Zerafa.

The WBA sent communications to the parties of both fighters to start negotiations from March 14th to April 3th which would constitute a total of 30 days for the two to find common ground in contract negotiations.

Despite the order that has been sent out, the WBA has refused to clarify Erislandy Lara’s (29-3-3, 17 KO’s) status as a champion and what will happen with the ‘Super’ champion belt. With the distinction between the ‘Regular’ and ‘Super’ titles already confusing – as having either one of the titles means one is a world champion, the WBA has continued to blur the lines between a ‘Regular’ and ‘Super’ champion by announcing Erislandy as the only world champion in the division.

This could mean that the entire concept of ‘Regular’ and ‘Super’ champions has been made obsolete in the wake of Gennady Golovkin’s (42-2-1, 37 KO’s) vacancy of his ‘Super’ title, with Lara now being considered as the sole WBA world champion at 160 lbs. The public is now expected to simply accept that Lara is a world champion, and ignore the fact that the WBA themselves made the distinction between a ‘Super’ and ‘Regular’ champion, as well as ignore them having made Golovkin a ‘Super’ champion out of the blue in 2022 – after winning against Ryota Murata – when Lara was already the reigning champion.

Now, with Golovkin’s relinquishment of his WBA title, there are suddenly no ‘Regular’ and ‘Super’ champions anymore, which leads one to wonder why they chose to make these two separate titles available only when Golovkin fought at Middleweight in 2022 – after two years out of the ring from 2020 to 2022), and then unavailable as soon as Golovkin vacated the title in less than a year after winning his ‘Super’ belt. During Gennady Golovkin’s absence from the ring, Erislandy Lara had then not been a ‘Regular’ champion, but a world champion who continued on to defend his title three times over a period of almost four years.

With Golovkin gone, no other fighter has been considered worthy enough to be make the ‘Super’ or ‘Regular’ title available. Oddly too, the ‘Super’ and ‘Regular’ distinctions were absent from the sport during the reigns of both Ryota Murata (16-3, 13 KO’s) – in his fight with Golovkin – who himself had been a world champion from 2017 to 2019 – and Erislandy Lara until Golovkin emerged as a legitimate competitor in the division – whether he held other world titles or was simply the contender.

The #1 contender in the rankings, Michael Zerafa (31-4, 19 KO’s), is now set to be Erislandy Lara’s next opponent who who has reigned as world champion of the WBA’s Middleweight division since 2019. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the winner when it comes to the ‘Regular’ and ‘Super’ champion statuses. With these distinctions now mysteriously unimportant and unavailable, one will have to wonder when the next ‘Super’ and ‘Regular’ champions will be made available, and most importantly, for who.