Mikaelian stripped of WBC title, Cieslak promoted to champion

The WBC has stripped Noel Mikaelian of his cruiserweight world title following his ninth-round stoppage loss to Jai Opetaia in Las Vegas.

The WBC has declared the championship vacant and elevated interim titleholder Michal Cieslak to full champion. 

Cieslak has also been ordered to defend the belt against unified WBA and WBO champion David Benavidez on December 12 in Arizona. The winner will then be required to face Opetaia.

Mikaelian entered the fight with Opetaia as the WBC champion, but the title was not available because the sanctioning body had refused to approve the contest. 

The WBC had previously ordered Mikaelian to meet Benavidez after the American activated a rarely used rule allowing a reigning light-heavyweight champion to challenge for a title in the next division.

Mikaelian instead accepted the opportunity to face Opetaia on the Ryan Garcia–Conor Benn undercard. The WBC had warned that he would lose the title if he went ahead with the fight, and the organisation followed through after the defeat.

In its ruling, the WBC said it had made “numerous attempts and undertaken countless efforts” to bring the parties together before deciding that stripping Mikaelian and promoting Cieslak was the appropriate action under its regulations.

Cieslak, who held the interim championship, is now the recognised WBC cruiserweight titleholder. His first assignment will be against Benavidez, who is seeking to become a two-division world champion.

Opetaia will not receive the WBC belt for his victory, but the Australian has been named the mandatory challenger. 

His win over Mikaelian improved his record to 31-0 with 24 knockouts, and he will now wait for the outcome of Cieslak–Benavidez before getting his opportunity to fight for the title.

The victory also saw Opetaia retain The Ring and Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight championships. He stopped Mikaelian for the first time in the Armenian’s professional career, leaving his opponent without a world title only weeks after Mikaelian had captured the WBC belt by beating Badou Jack in December.