Michel Soro lying in wait as a serious WBA contender!
WBA “Gold” Junior Middleweight titlist Michel Soro (35-2-1, 24ko) stopped fellow country man Cedric Vitu (47-4, 19ko), in the fifth round in undoubtedly a career best performance while making a serious claim for a world title opportunity.
The 32 year old from France is relatively unknown. Part of the reason can be attributed to the fact that he has fought at home the majority of his career.
He has proven that the hunger to be a world champion still roars in his belly despite a few pitfalls along the way.
THE TOUGH ROAD
Soro, came up short challenging for the WBO championship in only his eighteenth professional fight in 2012. Determined to overcome this first career hiccup, he pushed forward grabbing minor titles along the way.
In 2017 another roadblock would hit with a loss to Brian Castano via split decision for the WBA Interim title. This turned out to be a costly defeat as the organization later elevated the Castano to “regular” champion after Demetrius Andrade vacated the title to move up to middleweight.
However, the focused veteran bounced back, wining his next four fights and capturing the WBA Gold title in July 2019. Once again he would be knocking on the door of a second championship opportunity.
It is still a waiting game for Soro when observing the landscape.
Unified champion Julian “J-Rock” Williams is scheduled for a hometown title defense against Jeison Rosario January 18 at the Liacouras Center in the mecca of boxing Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Also, current regular champion Erislandy Lara is available but there has been no word of a bout with Soro being in the works.
UNEXPLAINED EVENTS
The timetable between March and June of 2019 gets confusing pertaining to the three-way involvement of how this all is broken down. Featuring then ‘regular’ champion Brian Castano, former super champion Erislandy Lara and current Gold titlist Michel Soro.
Castano defended his version of the title against Lara in March. The fight was ruled a draw which spawned negotiations for a rematch.
Once negotiations fell through, the WBA stepped in and ordered Castano defend the title against Soro in a rematch of their own.
Team Soro won the purse bid and had planned to rematch the 2017 bout that saw the Argentine fighter walk away the victor. However, things quickly dissolved as Castano never signed the contract, resulting of him being stripped of the title.
Hold on! Wait!There’s more! If your head hurts now, pause before taking that advil.
In June, the WBA ordered Lara to face Soro. However, this ordering never gained traction because the Cuban boxer was already scheduled to face Ramon Alvarez who at the time was ranked #6.
The WBA reneged on the order and instead awarded the ‘regular’ belt to the Cuban boxer after being victorious over Alvarez. This once again placed the belt on the more known fighter instead of following their own protocol.
This move has left French fighter out in the cold which was used as fuel for motivation. This would explain the “out of character” aggressiveness the WBA titlist displayed in destructive fashion over the southpaw challenger.
It is still unclear if the organization will revisit ordering the fight again in 2020. We here at 3kingsboxing will provide any information as things develop.
By: Garrisson Bland
