McDonnell set for 2013 World Title tilt

"Teremoto" is set to move up to super bantamweight

It's been announced this week that current IBF bantamweight champion Leo "Teremoto" Santa Cruz is set to step up to super bantamweight after his title defence in Los Angeles next week. The busy Mexican clashes with fellow unbeaten countryman Alberto Guevara as chief support to Amir Khan's bout with Carlos Molina next weekend, meaning the title will be vacated in the near future.

Santa Cruz has made two voluntary defences already, and was set to fight his mandatory next year, that being Doncaster's in form Jamie McDonnell. Luckily for both fighters, but McDonnell especially, it seems that Leo's future lies in the bigger weight classes and probably a huge clash with Abner Mares could happen this time next year. When the title will be made vacant McDonnell will land himself fight for the belt and will take on an opponent in the top 15 of the IBF's rankings.

McDonnell after winning his eliminator

The challenger is expected to be someone who has participated in a recent IBF title fight or holds one of their multi continental belts, therefore it's expected that McDonnell will have home advantage and be a pretty strong favourite.

One opponent could be Vusi Malinga, the South African who went the 12 round distance with Santa Cruz when contesting for the vacant title in June, and was supposed to fight Jamie in a title eliminator in October. 30 year old Frenchman Mohamed Boulgehcha held the IBF International title in April 2011 and having won his most recent fight, which was a six rounder, in the weird world of Boxing, he can be classed as a contender. 

A rematch with the awkward Haskins would be very interesting

A potentially dangerous opponent for McDonnell could be unbeaten, big hitting Mexican Julio Ceja (22-0, 20 KO's) who is the current IBF Latino champion, and is ranked #14 in the world, one place above him the Doncaster bantamweight. That looks to be the most dangerous likely opponent out there, while a fight with European champion Lee Haskins of Bristol, would be very interesting, as Haskins was the last person to beat the 26 year old, claiming a 77-76 decision on the referee's scorecard in March 2008.

Hopefully McDonnell will get his long awaited title tilt next year, his recent performances have been excellent. He's done it the right way by winning British, Commonwealth and European titles, and the good news is that if this world title fight comes off, the chances of it being televised on Sky Sports is very likely, this after his last fight with Darwin Zamora was shown on the channel.