Reviewed by Aaron Mubanga JnrZambia sports betting writer
Published 4 October 2026
A high rating does not make a Zambian boxer a mandatory challenger. The World Boxing Council’s own rules say the highest rated boxer in its rankings is never the official mandatory challenger solely because of that position.
What the Act requires at home
The Professional Boxing and Wrestling Control Act provides for the establishment of a board for professional boxing, defines its objects and prescribes its powers, duties and functions. The objects of the Board are to regulate, control and exercise general supervision over professional boxing at tournaments, with a view to the elimination of undesirable practices and the protection of the interests of boxers, promoters, officials and the public generally.
Two requirements follow, and they are separate. The event needs a licence: no person may hold or assist in holding a tournament unless the holding of it has been authorised by a licence issued by the Board, and the Board may attach whatever conditions it thinks fit. The people need a certificate: no person may take part in a tournament as a boxer or an official, manage a boxer’s affairs so far as they relate to tournaments, or negotiate for a boxer’s services at a tournament, without a valid certificate of registration. Who licenses a boxing match in Zambia sets out how the Board runs that process.
What a rating is worth
Abroad, the step that gets talked about is the rating. David Mwale is the live Zambian example: he holds the WBC International bantamweight title, and the World Boxing Council rates him seventeenth at bantamweight.
A place on that list is not a place in the queue for the belt. The WBC has the discretion to designate a mandatory challenger by ordering a final elimination bout of two qualified contenders, by designating a Qualified Challenger as the official mandatory challenger, or by ordering a unification bout with a champion of another organisation it recognises. Its rules then add that the highest rated boxer in the rankings is never, solely by virtue of that position, the official mandatory challenger.
The word that decides it is final
The WBC may order qualifying or elimination bouts to determine its ratings and to select the boxers who compete in a final elimination bout. The rules are explicit that elimination bouts do not necessarily produce an official mandatory challenger, and that the winner of an elimination bout does not become the mandatory challenger unless the World Boxing Council sanctioned that bout explicitly as a final elimination bout. The word that matters on a Zambian fight poster is therefore final.
Winning one is still not the end of it. The rules add that no boxer is to be considered a mandatory challenger, or to claim the privileges that go with it, unless the WBC President or the President’s designated representative has officially designated him and the Board of Governors has voted to authorise or ratify that designation.
Once a bout is ordered, the parties are given a period in which to negotiate and file a contract. If they do not, the WBC calls for purse offers from promoters, and the right to stage the fight is bid for. That is the stage at which a Zambian challenge stops being a position on a list and becomes a date. The Zambian end of it runs through our Zambia sports news coverage.
