Citing Lack of Interest, WBC Scraps Tournament to Find Mayweather Successor

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman shows off a custom belt during a press conference (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)

In light of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s "retirement," the WBC decided to crown his successor by pitting super-welterweights against each other in a tournament format.

Named "The Jose Sulaiman Cup" in honor of Mauricio's father and the WBC's former president, co-promoter Sampson Lewkowicz said of the tournament at the time: "This is a project that is near and dear to my heart. It was first the idea of the great Jose Sulaiman and had to be postponed when his health began to fail. And so I am honoured to be working with Mauricio and the WBC to bring his father's vision to life and honor him by doing so."

The "great" Jose Sulaiman was a particularly controversial figure—one who was routinely accused of compromising his own organization for the benefit of promotor Don King—whose induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame was widely rubbished by the respected corners of the boxing press. But, that's a story for another day—one which is being continued by the incompetency of his son, Mauricio.

It wasn't the daftest of ideas. The Super Six tournament, which pitted the world's top six super-middleweights against each other including Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Mikkel Kessler and Andre Dirrell, was largely a success. But, as is usually the case with Sulaiman and the WBC, this idea was always doomed from the start.

This proved to be the case. Things went a little quiet and on Sunday, talking to World Boxing News, Sulaiman confirmed his super-welterweight project was a no go as the boxers courted to compete in the WBC tournament weren't interested in this convoluted way of earning a world title. No surprise considering there are other world titles in the same weight class, which have equal importance to that of the WBC's crown.

"I'm so disappointed in the super-welterweight tournament," Sulaiman told World Boxing News.

"We started a great idea and included many fighters. They committed to participate and everything seemed to be a great solution to find a successor to Floyd Mayweather as champion following his retirement, but unfortunately, the fighters and the fights fell out of the tournament.

"At this moment, we have Charlo (Jermell) who is the champion and he is going to do the mandatory against Charles Hatley as he's won the opportunity (against Anthony Mundine) and that was part of the original tournament.

"But after that—unfortunately, and due to the other fighter's decisions, we will just proceed as usual. We have the convention coming up so we will review the tournament and the division and go from there."

So Jermell Charlo is now the successor to Mayweather's WBC super-welterweight crown and will be fighting Charles Hatley. Color me unimpressed. While unbeaten, with 13 on his 28 wins coming by way of knockout, Jermell hasn't exactly set the world alight in his nine years as a pro.

In light of this news, Charlo won his world title by defeating the 20-3 John Jackson of the Virgin Islands by TKO in the eighth round. The only notable names he's beaten are journeyman Joachim Alcine, Vanes Martirosyan and Bernard Hopkins' nephew Demetrius Hopkins.

Hatley was once considered one of the best amateur boxers out there, compiling a record of 250-12, and was an Olympic alternate for the 2008 Games in Beijing, China. He has since compiled a pro record of 26-1-1 with 18 knockouts to his credit, though no real big-name victories under his belt.

The pair have had a bit of a run-in with each other by proxy. Jermall Charlo, Jermell's identical twin brother, had his post-fight interview interrupted by Hatley following the successful defence of his IBF light middleweight title against Austin Trout.

It was a tad awkward. Hatley, standing with the aforementioned Don King in tow, was a total stranger to Charlo, who didn't seem to know who Hatley was—let alone his twin brother's mandatory challenger—and it appeared Hatley had no clue that he was approaching Jermall rather than Jermell.

It's all a total, convoluted mess. Which is totally appropriate given Jermell Charlo will be defending his newly minted super welterweight world title against Hatley for the total, convoluted mess that is Mauricio Sulaiman's WBC.