Anybody Want a WBO Bantamweight Belt?

John Rel Casimero is currently the WBO Bantamweight champion but within the next 15 days, we’ll know if that will hold up.

In a follow-up to the “Show Cause” letter that the WBO asked Casimero to provide, he has and has ruled the following regarding his title status.

In the event that Casimero does not attend the official weigh-in for any reason whatsoever, the WBO title will be declared vacant.

In the event that Casimero is injured or suffers an injury, refuses to fight, or is unavailable to participate, fight, or engage for any reason whatsoever, the WBO title will be declared vacant, and Casimero shall be rated in the WBO bantamweight ratings per the ABC and WBO rating criteria.

In the event that Butler does not attend the official weigh-in for any reason whatsoever, the WBO will withdraw his mandatory challenger status designation and proceed to select the first available contender in the WBO bantamweight rankings.

In the event that Butler is injured or suffers an injury and depending on the type of injury and recovery period, or is unavailable to participate, refuses to fight, or engage for any reason whatsoever, the WBO will withdraw his mandatory challenger status and proceed to select the first available contender in the WBO bantamweight division.

All of that stems from the initial Probellum card in Dubai that hit a few snags in the fight card, most notably this main event which Casimero pulled out from a day before the fight. His mandatory challenger Paul Butler followed suit shortly after, leaving this fight off the card as Butler didn’t want to fight for an “interim” title status bout while all of this was sorted out.

Now that it is, we’ll see if and when this fight is put on by Probellum and/or featuring Casimero and/or Butler.