Saturday 14 May 2016 12:57, UK
Guillermo Rigondeaux has been reinstated as the WBA's 'super' champion in the super-bantamweight division.
The unbeaten Cuban was originally stripped of the belt last November due to inactivity and Scott Quigg was promoted to WBA 'super' champion for February's unification clash with Carl Frampton.
IBF champion Frampton added the WBA strap with a unanimous points win, but was subsequently stripped of the belt for failing to negotiate a first defence, and WBA president Gilberto Mendoza has since suggested that Rigondeaux could defend his newly regained title against Jazza Dickens, or even WBA bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell.
"We had differences with Rigondeaux's team, but we mediated," Mendoza told ESPN Deportes.
"They hired a legal adviser and then after negotiations we came to the decision that he would be reinstated as a super champion. He was the undisputed champion, but given that he didn't have a fight for a long time, he was declared the champion in recess.
"They asked us, in that agreement, to have the opportunity to fight an opponent, who was not a world champion - that was what we wanted.
"We hope it would come against James Dickens or Jamie McDonnell, who was also mentioned."
Dickens was due to face Rigondeaux in March before the fight fell through, just days beforehand, while McDonnell has admitted he could consider a step-up in weight after making four defences of his WBA belt.
Mendoza has revealed convoluted plans for a WBA tournament, which will see interim champion Moises Flores take on Paulus Ambunda, while Nehomar Cermeno will battle Jun Qiu Xiao for the vacant WBA 'regular' belt.
"What we are going to do now is a kind of tournament," said Mendoza. "The winner of the fight between Rigondeaux and Dickens or McDonnell will go to the winner of Flores and Ambunda, and then the winner of these fights will go to the winner of Cermeno and Xiao, and what we will have is a single champion."
