JMM v. Juan Diaz: Sanctioned by the WBO

WBO sanctions Marquez-Diaz!

The WBO World Championship Committee received from Golden Boy Promotions Matchmaker Eric Gomez a formal request that the bout between Juan Manuel Márquez and Juan DÃ*az on February 28 in Houston, Texas, be sanctioned as a WBO vacant lightweight championship title bout. The lightweight title was vacated when former champion Nate Campbell did not make the weight prior to his February 14 bout. Pursuant to the consideration of these facts, it is the consensus of the WBO Executive Committee and Championship Committee to grant Gomez’ petition. Therefore, the WBO World Championship Committee sanctions the above referenced bout to be held February 28, 2009 in Houston, Texas, with the provision that the winner must face the mandatory challenger within 180 days of the bout, unless some other decision is reached in accordance with the WBO World Championship Rules and Regulations.
February 18th, 2009

I guess Golden Boy won out. If you recall Frank Warrent wanted Kahn's fight to be for the vacant alphabet title.

Wow, I thought for sure Khan-Barrera was gunna get it with Warren having alot of sway with the WBO and Barrera being the #1 Ranked fighter in their division. Glad that they went with the better fight between the 2 top lightweights in the world right now.

It will also bring the WBO title in line with The Ring Title which, by proxy, will give legitimacy to the WBO title.

YES


Finally the sport serves us with some legitimacy and we get an authentic world title fight on the 28th.

Not that this fight needed anything else to sell it over for the hardcore boxing fan.

Gonna be a great fight!!

the right decision.

Well... seeing as they rank Barrera as #1 winner should have to face Khan/Barrera. If Diaz's beats Marquez where's he get placed on the P4P list?

It's a no brainer that this fight SHOULD be a world title fight rather than Khan-Barrera, though I haven't been keeping up with the rankings at all(not that there's ever much reason to). Marquez is the linear champ and both fighters are big draws, it's an excellent match up period and neither need the belt. While it doesn't exactly make the fight more intriguing being for the WBO title, the winner deserves any bargaining chip they can get I suppose. Personally having just watched Campbell Funeka I feel Ali definetly deserved to win the belts, but I'd hate to see Amir Khan become a world champ if he manages to beat an old blown up MAB, so good decision really.