Josh Taylor has been hit with several mandatory defense orders in the last few months.

A few days ago, the World Boxing Association stripped him of their world title for his failure in taking part with a mandatory defense against Alberto Puello. Taylor claims that he vacated the belt due to pressure from the sanctioning body.

Although he's no longer the undisputed champion, Taylor still holds the WBC, IBF and WBO belts.

After securing a controversial points win over WBO mandatory Jack Catterall earlier this year, Taylor vowed to move up in weight to the welterweight limit of 147-pounds.

Now it appears the Scottish star will stick around at 140-pounds for the moment - for a potential clash with WBC mandatory challenger Jose Zepeda.

"Zepeda is coming off a fight of the year performance against Baranchyk and a first-round KO of Vargas in October," Top Rank President Todd Duboef told Sky Sports.

"These together have earned him the mandatory position to Josh's WBC crown. We are working with both teams to put this fight on next."

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman is not exactly sure why the WBA removed Taylor from their title - since the sanctioning bodies had all [previously met to work out Taylor's mandatory schedule - and the WBC was next in line.

"We have ordered that fight," Sulaiman told Sky Sports. "We have a purse bid date, I believe it's the 24th of this month.

"The issue here is we had an agreement. We met in Puerto Rico, the four presidents, Paco Valcarcel, Daryl Peoples, Gilberto Mendoza and myself and we had an agreement. We sat down, we discussed that division and I was clear that [Jack] Catterall as WBO mandatory was next. Zepeda as WBC mandatory was next, and then the IBF mandatory was next.

"For some strange reason, the WBA simply went out and ordered another fight, and now they have taken away the title from Josh Taylor, or Josh relinquished. Whichever maybe, but it's very unfortunate. We want to keep the mandatory unified champions. We want to have mandatory contenders that are of the highest level, but we will see what happens next."