The WBC has stripped Terence Crawford of his super middleweight title, claiming the American star has failed to pay mandatory fees to the sanctioning body.
British contender Hamzah Sheeraz (22-1, 18 KOs) will fight for the vacant title against fellow super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli.
Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) won the undisputed super middleweight championship with a dominant decision win against Canelo Alvarez earlier this year.
The WBC says it gave Crawford a discount from 3% to 0.6% on sanctioning fees on his reported $50 million purse from fighting Canelo in September, claiming that Crawford has balked at paying the fee for that fight, along with fees from his previous fight against Israil Madrimov in August 2024.
"The WBC sent multiple communications to Champion Crawford, his manager, and his legal counsel," the sanctioning body said in a statement. "Very unfortunately, the WBC did not receive an acknowledgment of receipt nor any response to any of those communications. The WBC had no choice but to act."
Crawford has held world championships in five divisions and been undisputed in three classes, while building an undefeated record.
Sheeraz has the opportunity to become Britain's next world champion when he fights for the now vacant title.
He must beat Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs), a Cameroon-born and Canada-based contender, who is coming off an all-out brawl against Lester Martinez in September which ended in a split-draw.
Sheeraz impressively stopped Edgar Berlanga earlier this year having moved to the super middleweight division.
Previously, Sheeraz had a shot at the WBC middleweight title but fought to a draw against Carlos Adames.
He lost his first pro fight but has since won 22 in a row.
Sheeraz and Mbilli are the No. 4 and No. 5 ranked super middleweights, respectively, in ESPN's divisional rankings.