Not that long ago Devin Haney announced on social media he’d be taking time out. Well it seems he wasn’t bluffing as according to Michael Benson the WBC have made Devin champion in recess. The WBC have also elevated Alberto Puello the interim WBC champ to full champion. In addition to this Puello has been ordered to fight Sandor Martin who was Haney’s mandatory. All of this has been confirmed by Mauricio Suiliman the chairman of the WBC in an interview with Boxing Scene.
What This Means for Alberto Puello
Well for a start this means that he will become the new WBC champion in the 140lb division. And although not defeating the champion to become the champion isn’t ideal Puello now holds a championship belt. Also it’s not as if Haney was universally viewed as the champion regardless of his official status Haney took a beating from Ryan Garcia. And although the loss was rightfully made a no-contest after that fight many didn’t view him as the champion.
In fact Puello was one of the fighters who disagreed with Haney still holding the best despite the Garcia fight. He made his opinion known in a Tweet saying, “I deserve to be the WBC Champion not Devin Haney because he just received a beating by the hands of Ryan Garcia how’s it possible that he still maintains the title if he doesn’t want to fight Martin tell him to abandon the title and I will take care of that”. His points were pretty fair and his wish has seemingly been granted. Puello also let his feelings about becoming champion known on Twitter saying, “I said I deserved it and God brought it to me”.
And so likely we will hear an announcement soon of the fight between Puello and Martin being booked. That will likely be a successful first defence for the new champion. Puello or the winner of Puello vs Martin has also been ordered to fight Gary Antuanne Russell as a mandatory. This is slightly strange given Puello in his last fight beat Russell convincingly.
What This Means for the Division
The obvious answer is that we have a new champion and with that comes new opportunity. Haney as champ at 140 didn’t seem massively interested in unifying with other champions. But, Puello may have more interest in trying to unify after he defends against his mandatories. Unlike Haney who had already became undisputed at 135lbs Puello hasn’t done that before and may be more motivated to try it.
For the division it also means it’s gaining some new life. Recently the 140lb division has been experiencing some pretty big changes in champions. Not that long ago Isaac Cruz became WBA super world champion and Subriel Matias the IBF champion just lost his belt to Liam Paro. Teofimo Lopez has managed to keep hold of his WBO belt but outside of him we’ve had a few new champions.
This should help garner more fan interest as the division is becoming less static. This is also pretty helpful as the lower weight classes tend not to receive the same attention as the heavier weight classes. So changes should attract more attention. Devin Haney’s exit should also help attract attention and his eventual return will also create alot of publicity.
So we shall see what Puello’s reign as champion has to offer and if we may start to see some unification’s in the 140lb division.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
