With Josh Taylor relinquishing his second world championship at 140 pounds, the WBC has scheduled a rematch between Jose Ramirez and Jose Zepeda to fill the void.

Josh Taylor has decided to surrender his WBC junior welterweight championship rather than fight mandatory challenger Jose Zepeda after postponing the purse bid three times.

The WBC announced the news today, expressing remorse for “having lost so much time and having mandatory contender Jose Zepeda frozen as well as other fighters in the division,” and ordering Zepeda to face No. 2 Jose Ramirez for the crown.

Taylor (19-0, 13 KO) did so, according to Top Rank, in order to rematch Jack Catterall, whom most analysts think should have formally dethroned “The Tartan Tornado” earlier this year, but Taylor did it in the most fan-unfriendly way conceivable.

Nothing stopped him from doing this when the WBC originally ordered it two months ago, and nothing stopped him from doing the same with the WBA championship immediately after he was ordered to face Alberto Puello.

Instead of allowing the division to resume, he has chosen to sit on his belts and waste everyone’s time.

Obviously, I can’t complain about Ramirez (27-1, 17 KO) versus Zepeda (35-2, 27 KO) happening again; their first encounter, in which Ramirez came back from an early deficit to win by majority decision, was extremely competitive and exciting. Their recent performance indicates that the rematch should be even better. Taylor has spent the previous four months tying everyone up and lying through his teeth about his plans, which is beyond irritating.

About José Carlos Ramirez

José Carlos Ramirez is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former unified light welterweight champion, having held the WBC and WBO titles from 2018 until May 2021. As an amateur, he was ranked first in the WBC lightweight division in the United States and represented the country in the 2012 Olympics. He is now listed as the world’s second-best active light welterweight by The Ring and BoxRec, and third by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board as of June 2020.

About Jose Encarnacion Zepeda

Jose Encarnacion Zepeda is a Mexican-born American professional boxer who competed for the WBO lightweight title in 2015 and the WBC light welterweight belt in 2019. He is ranked fifth best active light welterweight in the world by BoxRec, seventh by The Ring, and ninth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board as of August 2020.