In its continued desire to reduce the number of champions, the WBA Championships Committee has ordered WBA Super World super bantamweight Guillermo “El Chacal” Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs), the cagey southpaw from Miami by way of Santiago de Cuba, and WBA World interim super bantamweight champion Moises “Chucky” Flores (25-0, 17 KOs), from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, to begin negotiations to unify the titles.

WBA rules entitle the WBA President and the Championships Committee to define, at their discretion, a mandatory period. Rigondeaux’s Super Championship status was conditioned to an 18-month mandatory defense period.

Since this period is past due his next opponent must be the certified official contender Moises Flores.

Pursuant to WBA rule C.13 — Bout Limitations — the champion may not fight a boxer who is not the official challenger within sixty (60) days of the expiration of the mandatory defense period. Based on the above mentioned facts, on behalf of the championship committee, we hereby order a mandatory negotiation period at thirty (30) days beginning on July 18th, 2016 and will close at the end of the business day (- 5GMT) on August 17th, 2016.

If an agreement cannot be reached, or if any of the parties expresses unwillingness to negotiate, the Championships Committee may call a purse bid.

This article was penned by the author who is not related to the WBA and the statements, expressions or opinions referenced herein are that of the author alone and not the WBA.