Francis Warren is seeking to maneuver Dennis McCann into position for a title fight at junior featherweight.
McCann (16-0-1, 8 KOs) is currently ranked third by the WBO and is due to face Peter McGrail (10-1, 6 KOs) on the December 21 undercard of the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury rematch in Riyadh.
Warren asked the WBO to move McCann into the No. 1 slot, and therefore the mandatory challenger position, if the 23-year-old from Maidstone comes out victorious. Warren made that request during a Thursday meeting of the WBO’s ratings committee at the sanctioning body’s convention in Puerto Rico (McCann is also rated No. 11 by the WBC and No. 12 by the IBF. McGrail is only ranked by the WBA, which has him in the No. 12 slot. McGrail’s team subsequently asked the WBO to include him in its top 15).
The WBO title, as well as the IBF, WBA and WBC belts, currently belong to undisputed 122-pound champion Naoya Inoue. Three days after McCann vs. McGrail, Inoue will defend against Sam Goodman.
Goodman is the number-one challenger in both the IBF and WBO’s rankings. The IBF has ordered Inoue to face Goodman. The WBO, however, has yet to decide whether it will also consider that fight as a mandatory defense for Inoue or if it will be considered a voluntary defense.
Why does that matter? Because of the timeline for when the Inoue-Goodman winner would then be required by the WBO to face whomever is the next mandatory challenger.
“Inoue’s situation is very particular,” responded newly elected WBO president Gustavo Olivieri. “He’s undisputed. He’s WBO super champion. He has up to 18 months to do a mandatory. So we have multiple scenarios to consider. If the WBO sanctions Inoue-Goodman as WBO voluntary, thereafter he has the WBO mandatory [due afterward]. That’s one scenario. Another scenario is we sanction that fight as the WBO mandatory, and not to force another mandatory on Inoue so quickly.”
One other factor: Inoue would likely have to face his WBA mandatory challenger next. That is currently Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who is scheduled to fight Ricardo Espinoza Franco on December 14 for the WBA’s interim title. The winner of Akhmadaliev vs. Franco could wind up facing Inoue (if he beats Goodman) in Las Vegas in April. That date and time is what Top Rank is planning on, while also working toward a potential super-fight with bantamweight titleholder Junto Nakatani for later in 2025.
Warren then asked the WBO if McCann could be considered for an interim title.
“We have a strong policy, as you know, to not sanction interim championships,” replied Olivieri. “My position is only interim champion if a fighter is injured or there’s an extraordinary circumstance that warrants an interim champion. For example, a big unification like Usyk-Fury. When we sanctioned that fight, we sanctioned that fight with specific circumstances to allow the fight that the fans, the business and everyone want to see, and we did an interim with Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
“Those are the only circumstances that I would promote doing an interim,” Olivieri said. “Too early to tell. Please allow us a couple of weeks to assess the situation and then we’ll notify you.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.