WBC Leaves Lightweight Title Vacant After Stevenson Move

The WBC lightweight title is finally up for grabs, but the messy way we got here has left the 135 pound division stuck in neutral.

Shakur Stevenson took down Teofimo Lopez last weekend to win the WBO light welterweight belt, officially making him a four division champ. He walked into that ring holding the WBC lightweight title, but he stayed silent on whether he ever planned to go back down to defend it.

That silence lasted until the WBC dropped its February ratings update. Without a word of explanation, they simply listed the lightweight title as vacant. We still don’t know if the WBC stripped him or if Shakur finally handed the belt back. No announcement, no press release, just a blank space where a champion used to be.

The timing is what’s interesting here. Shakur took the WBC lightweight belt with him to a higher weight class and then essentially walked away without a clear handoff. While he was busy at 140, the rest of the lightweights were left in limbo. If the WBC had declared the seat open the moment Shakur signed to fight Lopez, the division could have kept moving. Instead, everyone had to sit and wait.

Even with the update, the WBC is still dragging its feet. Jadier Herrera, who knocked out Ricardo Nunez in January to win the 135 lb interim belt, wasn’t promoted to full champion. The move answered one small ranking question but left the biggest one hanging.

William Zepeda is back at the #1 spot, leading a pack that includes Lamont Roach Jr, Andy Cruz, and Dzmitry Asanau. The rest of the top 15 features Sam Noakes, Justin Pauldo, Ricardo Nunez, Joe Cordina, Shu Utsuki, Bakhodur Usmonov, Lucas Bahdi, Jordan White, Alan Abel Chaves, Armando Rabi, and Albert Bell.

Right now, that WBC belt is nothing more than a line on a spreadsheet. Whether it was vacated or stripped doesn’t change the reality: the title is gone, and the division is only just now getting the green light to move on.