Days after Alexander Besputin won the WBA "Regular" welterweight title, the sanctioning body has already ordered a mandatory title defense.
The WBA ordered Besputin to face mandatory challenger Yordenis Ugas with a deadline of January 2, 2020 to get a fight deal done or else a purse bid order will be issued. The WBA added the fight must be carried out before March 29, 2020.
Besputin won the then-vacant title on November 30 with a unanimous decision win over Radzhab Butaev on a Matchroom Boxing show in Monaco that was streamed on DAZN. Besputin won the bout with scores of 116-112 across the board on all three judges' scorecards.
Ugas previously fought for the WBC title back in March when he lost a split decision to Shawn Porter in California. Ugas' last fight was a 12-round decision win against Omar Figueroa Jr. on the pay-per-view card of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurman event from July. The Ugas vs. Figueroa fight was previously billed as a WBC welterweight title eliminator, but there was never any indication of when the WBC would order its champion to fight Ugas.
The current WBC champion is Errol Spence Jr., who also holds the IBF title and is currently awaiting medical clearance to resume fighting after an automobile accident in October. If and when Spence gets cleared, he will more than likely face Danny Garcia next and then be ordered to fight his IBF mandatory challenger, potentially leaving Ugas without a WBC title shot until the end of 2020 at the earliest.
The current WBA "Super" champion at welterweight is Pacquiao, who won the title with that aforementioned victory over Thurman. There's no word on when Pacquiao will return to the ring to defend his title.
