The WBC does it again!!
They have granted "Champion Emeritus" status to Israel Vazquez while he recovers from surgery. Toshiaki Nishioka won a UD over Napapol Kiatisakchokchai in September to become the WBC Superbantam interim title holder. Nishioka has become the regular WBC Superbantam champ with the Vazquez move. Nishioka will defend against recent Hasegawa victim Genaro Garcia. The WBC has said that the winner of that match will be required to face either Jhonny Gonzalez or Rafa Marquez. In my opinion it doesn't matter if Gonzalez OR Marquez gets the shot they will destroy Nishioka or Garcia regardless of who wins. That should be around the time that Vaquez comes back so Fall of '09 it is likely we will see Vazquez/Marquez IV or Vazquez/Gonzalez II. I think it's important to note that Champion Emeritus status has no time limit i.e. Vitali Klitschko.
Furthermore, it appears that IBF/WBA Champion Celestino Caballero is being shut out against any unification attempts with the WBC in the foreseeable future, which leaves me wondering if we may also see Caballero/Lopez (WBO champ) or if he will fight Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym who won a title eliminator off of FOTY combatant Somsak Sithchatsawal as his WBA mandatory or less likely Jeff Mathebula from South Africa who won a title eliminator over Julio Zarate as his mandatory IBF opponent.
As messy as this situation is, I think the willingness of all these guys to fight each other may lead to an actual 4 alphabet champ.
There are some ridiculous things that need to be mentioned here.
The WBC ranks Rey Bautista 10th and 11th, I don't think even Saddoboxer could explain that one.
NONE of the four rank Steve Molitor anymore, which is ridiculous considering he lost one match and that was against another strap holder.
