WBO STRIPS MAYWEATHER OF WELTERWEIGHT BELT
Floyd Mayweather Jr. hasn’t relinquished his titles as promised, and one sanctioning organization is not waiting. The WBO stripped the pound-for-pound king of his welterweight title for failure to comply with rules, the organization announced. Timothy Bradley will be elevated from interim champion. After Mayweather won the WBO title from Manny Pacquiao in the May 2 superfight, he failed to pay the accompanying $200,000 sanctioning fee. He also was asked to vacate his WBC and WBA titles at junior middleweight. If he did both of those things, the WBO said, he would keep his title. But after Mayweather indicated he would relinquish all of his titles to give younger fighters a chance, the WBO sanctioned the June 27 Bradley- Jessie Vargas fight for the vacant title. When Mayweather caught wind of the news, he became angry and asked news reporters how he could be stripped of a belt he had never received. — Mike Coppinger