Josh Taylor might have to defend his world tittle in a bout aganist Jose Zepeda as the boxing champion’s promotional team have confirmed that they are hoping to finalize the Scotsman’s next fight.
Taylor had to relinquish his WBA super-lightweight title over the weekend due to the governing body’s mandatory requirements, but the Scottish star is now set to defend his WBC, WBO, and IBF titles against WBC mandatory challenger Zepeda.
“Zepeda is coming off a fight of the year performance against Baranchyk and a first-round KO of Vargas in October,” said Top Rank President Todd Duboef.
“These together have earned him the mandatory position to Josh’s WBC crown.
“We are working with both teams to put this fight on next.”
Taylor had defended his WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO titles in February with a contentious points victory over WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall, who had demanded a rematch.
Despite the WBA’s decision to impose a mandatory defense, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed to Sky Sports that Zepeda was the next in line to challenge Taylor.
“We have ordered that fight,” Sulaiman told Sky Sports. “We have a purse bid date, I believe it’s the 24th of this month.
“The issue here is we had an agreement. We met in Puerto Rico, the four presidents, Paco Valcarcel, Daryl Peoples, Gilberto Mendoza and myself and we had an agreement.
“We sat down, we discussed that division and I was clear that [Jack] Catterall as WBO mandatory was next. Zepeda as WBC mandatory was next, and then the IBF mandatory was next.
“For some strange reason, the WBA simply went out and ordered another fight, and now they have taken away the title from Josh Taylor, or Josh relinquished. Whichever maybe, but it’s very unfortunate.
“We want to keep the mandatory unified champions. We want to have mandatory contenders that are of the highest level, but we will see what happens next.”
