WBC stripped Stevenson of title over 120K dollars sanctioning fee

President of World Boxing Council, Mauricio Sulaiman, admit that Shakur Stevenson was stripped of lightweight world title because he didn’t pay 120K dollars sanctioning fees when he fought Teofimo Lopez on January 31.

Stevenson defeated Lopez and won the WBO World superlightweight title. But WBC decided to take his lightweight title.

Sulaiman said Stevenson’s management reached out by phone to have the WBC put on the event with Lopez with a special version of the WBC title on the line.

“The WBC has it within the rules when you have a champion in a division who wants to fight a champion in another weight division,” Sulaiman said in an interview with Boxing Scene. “We accepted for Stevenson to fight but we asked for everything to be formalized in writing … and it never happened.”

Sulaiman said Stevenson’s team was unresponsive after numerous attempts to finalize the deal. With no deal in place, Stevenson was required to pay the sanctioning fee, which had been avoided, leading to the WBC stripping him of the title. The title is listed as “vacant” by the sanctioning body.

“It is a truly regretful situation,” Sulaiman said. “But the rules are very clear in every single organization that when a champion engages in a fight, he is to abide by the rules, which includes payment of sanctioning fees.”

A similar situation happened months ago with Stevenson’s close friend Terence Crawford, who was also stripped after not paying the sanctioning fees.