Josh Taylor loses WBA belt, no longer undisputed champion

Josh Taylor is no longer the undisputed world champion. The Scottish fighter still has the WBC, WBO and IBF world super-lightweight crowns, but the WBA Super bauble, one which he defended controversially against Jack Catterall back in March along with the rest, is now vacant.

Taylor, 31, had been ordered by the sanctioning body to make a mandatory defence of his title against Dominican Alberto Puello, who is unbeaten in 20 fights, after his last outing at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow.

"The World Boxing Association (WBA) Championships Committee, in accordance with the organization’s rules, has decided that the Super Lightweight title, which was held by the Scottish Josh Taylor, is vacant," said a WBA statement.

Taylor, nicknamed "The Tartan Tornado", is trained by Ben Davison and had hinted, after beating Chorley’s Catterall earlier this year, that a move up to welterweight to join WBC, WBA Super and IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. as well as WBO king Terence Crawford, would be his most likely option.

"It’s probably my last fight at 140, to be honest, but we’ll see how it goes," Taylor said back then. He won the WBA belt at the O2 Arena in London against America’s Regis Prograis back in November 2019 and insists he vacated it rather than was stripped. "Anybody, anybody in the world - 147, 140, I’ll fight anybody.”