THE camp of newly crowned WBA-IBO featherweight super champion Simpiwe Vetyeka is engaging with the WBA regarding their decision to order the Duncan Village boxer to fight ‘regular’ champion, Jamaican Nicholas Walters.
The WBA championship committee has surprisingly ordered the camps to enter into negotiations for the two champions to face each other within 120 days or purse bids will be invited to decide the promotional rights of the fight.
This comes in the wake of Vetyeka’s stunning sixth-round stoppage victory over previously unbeaten Indonesian legend Chris John to end his 10 years as the WBA king in Perth, Australia last weekend.
By beating John, Vetyeka has assumed WBA’s “super” champion status while Walters is the current regular champion. This after his seventh-round stoppage of Daulis Prescott, in Kingston in December last year, to become the first Jamaican to win a world title on home soil.
Throughout John’s title reign he has never been ordered to face Walters to decide a single champion in the featherweight division.
However as soon as Vetyeka had caused the upset by dethroning John, the WBA has jumped in and ordered him to face Walters.
Vetyeka’s manager-promoter Andile Sidinile was surprised by the WBA’s decision.
“We do not know why Vetyeka is treated differently when he becomes a champion yet John was allowed to keep his status as a ‘super’ champion without ever been ordered to make a mandatory title defence let alone to fight Walters,” he said.
“But we are engaging the WBA about this because there is also a rematch clause that John might invoke so until he informs us what he wants to do we cannot commit to anything.”
Sidinile added that Vetyeka was not scared of any boxer in the division even though the unbeaten Walters is high risk, low reward.
Several attempts to contact WBA African president Stan Christodoulou who has been encouraging SA fighters to its world titles proved fruitless as he is in US where he will be one of the judges in the WBA welterweight title clash between Argentinean Marcos Maidana and Adrien Broner this weekend.
However, the decision by the Panama-based world body has been condemned in several messages posted by boxing fans in several boxing publications and websites across the world.
They are accusing the WBA of employing double standards.
Some even accused Top Rank boss Bob Arum, whose company has just signed Walters, of influencing the WBA to take such a decision in order to enhance the planned clash between the Jamaican and Filipino star Nonito Donaire.
Sidinile had already planned to have Vetyeka challenge the winner of the February 15 WBC clash between Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares to be promoted by Top Rank’s rivals Golden Boy Promotions if the rematch with John does not materialise.
Vetyeka takes on WBA
The WBA championship committee has surprisingly ordered the camps to enter into negotiations for the two champions to face each other within 120 days or purse bids will be invited to decide the promotional rights of the fight.
This comes in the wake of Vetyeka’s stunning sixth-round stoppage victory over previously unbeaten Indonesian legend Chris John to end his 10 years as the WBA king in Perth, Australia last weekend.
By beating John, Vetyeka has assumed WBA’s “super” champion status while Walters is the current regular champion. This after his seventh-round stoppage of Daulis Prescott, in Kingston in December last year, to become the first Jamaican to win a world title on home soil.
Throughout John’s title reign he has never been ordered to face Walters to decide a single champion in the featherweight division.
However as soon as Vetyeka had caused the upset by dethroning John, the WBA has jumped in and ordered him to face Walters.
Vetyeka’s manager-promoter Andile Sidinile was surprised by the WBA’s decision.
“We do not know why Vetyeka is treated differently when he becomes a champion yet John was allowed to keep his status as a ‘super’ champion without ever been ordered to make a mandatory title defence let alone to fight Walters,” he said.
“But we are engaging the WBA about this because there is also a rematch clause that John might invoke so until he informs us what he wants to do we cannot commit to anything.”
Sidinile added that Vetyeka was not scared of any boxer in the division even though the unbeaten Walters is high risk, low reward.
Several attempts to contact WBA African president Stan Christodoulou who has been encouraging SA fighters to its world titles proved fruitless as he is in US where he will be one of the judges in the WBA welterweight title clash between Argentinean Marcos Maidana and Adrien Broner this weekend.
However, the decision by the Panama-based world body has been condemned in several messages posted by boxing fans in several boxing publications and websites across the world.
They are accusing the WBA of employing double standards.
Some even accused Top Rank boss Bob Arum, whose company has just signed Walters, of influencing the WBA to take such a decision in order to enhance the planned clash between the Jamaican and Filipino star Nonito Donaire.
Sidinile had already planned to have Vetyeka challenge the winner of the February 15 WBC clash between Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares to be promoted by Top Rank’s rivals Golden Boy Promotions if the rematch with John does not materialise.
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