Former WBO heavyweight champion Ukrainian Volodymyr Klitschko has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. state of New Jersey requesting that the International Boxing Federation (IBF) be obliged to declare him the mandatory challenger for the title held by Chris Byrd, reports Boxingtalk.com.
In his lawsuit, Klitschko cites the IBF rule according to which the champion must make a mandatory title defense against the boxer occupying the highest position in the rankings.
Currently Volodymyr is in third place in the IBF rankings, however Monte Barrett and Hasim Rahman, who occupy the first and second places, respectively, must soon fight for the interim WBC championship title and thus cannot lay claim to a meeting with Byrd. Klitschko explains his decision to seek justice through court rather than through the normal procedure, by appealing to the relevant IBF bodies, by his unwillingness to pay a fee of ten thousand dollars, which, according to the rules of this organization, is charged from every boxer who files an appeal with the ratings committee, reports www.allboxing.ru.
Recall that according to the IBF decision, Byrd will hold a fight in mid-July against Belarusian Sergei Liakhovich, who is in seventh position in this organization's rankings.