Paul Butler officially a two-time world champion after John Riel Casimero is stripped

Paul Butler can now officially call himself a two-time world champion after John Riel Casimero was stripped by the WBO and the Cheshire man elevated. The Ellesmere Port bantamweight clinched the vacant WBO Interim title at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool last month. Butler outpointed Jonas Sultan on the banks of the River Mersey, atop a card promoted by Probellum, taking the belt with scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 117-111.

 

"I had 48 hours to get a game plan together," said Butler, who was initially set to face Casimero before the latter was made unavailable to fight by the British Boxing Board of Control due to concerns about his weight-making process.

 

Butler, the former IBF champion at the weight, was forced to wait before being elevated to full champion. But the WBO’s executive committee voted in favour of ending Casimero’s title reign due to his failure to defend the belt on two separate occasions against Butler, therefore pushing ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ to champion in the 118-pound division.

 

Now-former king Casimero was ruled out of his second scheduled meeting with Butler, this time after using a sauna in close proximity to the scheduled bout, against medical guidelines of the governing body. He has been ranked number one, as recommended by the WBO’s world championship committee, meaning that he is highly likely to be made Butler’s mandatory challenger sooner rather than later, “subject to complying with the applicable rating criteria”.

 

Butler, who visited his gym-mates at Joe Gallagher’s Bolton base just days after lifting the gold, was quick to react to the news of now being named among the elite.

 

“I owe a massive thank you to my whole team,” said the 33-year-old in an emotional social media post. “I was back on the small hall shows, written off, four years ago and worked my arse off to get back on that big stage and get my chance again.

“Never give up on your dream [and] don’t let anyone tell you you can’t.”

 

Details regarding Butler’s next move will be revealed in due course but the likelihood is that he will return at some point post-summer after taking up a watching brief at ringside for Naoya Inoue’s rematch against Nonito Donaire in a unification for the WBA Super, IBF and WBC crowns on June 7 at the Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

 

“It’s a no brainer to go out to Japan and watch them two, if they get it on,” he added. “If that fight happens, the winner will have one belt left to try and win so why not box me?”