Well, the WBC certainly has a habit of making things up as they go along, so this should come as no surprise to most of you. Last fall the WBC announced that they were promoting Vasiliy Lomachenko to their newly create ‘Franchise Champion’ status, one that supposedly could neither be won nor lost inside the ring. That seemed dumb as hell, of course, but that’s what it was.
Now the WBC has apparently made some alterations to that concept, with their board of governers approving Lomachenko’s ‘Franchise’ status to be on the line when he faces Teofimo Lopez on October 17. That will provide Lopez with the opportunity to win that ‘Franchise Champion’ designation at the request of Top Rank.
In the meanwhile the sanctioning body expects the newly appointed world champion Devin Haney to make a voluntary defense of his strap while Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell battle it out for the interim title. Javier Fortuna will also be in the mix somewhere, when he makes his intentions known as to where he wants to go next. Perhaps the WBC will just create a new title category for him too.