Interim championship

An interim championship is an alternate title that is awarded by the sanctioning bodies of professional boxing, and in other combat sports such as kickboxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts.

Occasionally, the champion of a particular weight division is temporarily unable to defend his championship because of medical, legal, or other reasons that are beyond the competitor's control. When this case occurs, two highly ranked contenders may fight for an interim championship of the same weight division – leading to two champions existing in the same weight division simultaneously. Once the original champion is able to return, at the discretion of the sanctioning body or promotion concerned, they must defend their title against the interim champion - who will relinquish their interim title in order to fight for the full world title. If the original champion cannot return, refuses to defend their title or transfers to a different weight division, the interim champion is then promoted to full championship status. The WBC, however, have begun awarding interim titles to the winners of final eliminator fights, effectively signifying a mandatory challenger position for the full world title. Recent examples include the winners of Dillian Whyte vs Oscar Rivas and Devin Haney vs Zaur Abdullaev.[1][2]

Current interim champions

As of December 13, 2021.

Professional boxing
Sanctioning body Weight Class Champion
WBC Heavyweight Dillian Whyte
Flyweight McWilliams Arroyo
Mixed martial arts
Promotion Weight Class Champion
UFC[3] Heavyweight Ciryl Gane
Bantamweight Petr Yan
Bellator MMA[4] Heavyweight Valentin Moldavsky

See also

References

  1. Staff, MMAchannel com. "Why Does UFC Have Interim Champions?". MMACHANNEL. Retrieved 2021-11-18.
  2. "Why Are There So Many Boxing Champions & Title Belts?". Boxing Base. Retrieved 2021-11-18.
  3. "UFC Division Champions & Featured Fighters | UFC.com". www.ufc.com. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  4. "Bellator MMA". www.bellator.com. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
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