Throughout most of 2018, the WBC bantamweight title had been vacant, but there will finally be a fight to crown a new champion.
According to a report from ESPN, Nordine Oubaali and Rau'shee Warren will fight for the vacant title on December 22 in Brooklyn, New York. The title was previously held by Luis Nery, but Nery was stripped of the title for being massively overweight during weigh-ins before a fight against Shinsuke Yamanaka.
Earlier in the year, Oubaali and Petch Sor Chitpattana were supposed to fight for the belt this past summer, but the fight never materialized. The WBC then ordered Oubaali and Warren to fight for the title, originally set for earlier this year, but would later be moved to December. Oubaali will be fighting for his first world title in his United States debut. Warren will be looking to become a two-time world champion, having held the WBA title from 2016 to 2017.
Sor Chitpattana and Takuma Inoue fight for the interim title on December 30. The winner of those two fights would then likely be ordered to fight each other.
The fight is not planned to be televised on FOX as the tripleheader had already been set. The main event will be a fight between Jermall Charlo and Willie Monroe Jr. and the co-main event is a WBC junior middleweight title bout between Jermell Charlo and Tony Harrison. The televised opener is a heavyweight fight featuring Dominic Breazeale and Carlos Negron.
