By Mark Vester

According to former champion Vic Darchinyan's manager, Elias Nassar, the WBC will order a rematch of Darchinyan and Abner Mares (21-0, 13KOs). They exchanged knockdowns in their December 11 bout before Mares took a close split decision in the semi-finals of Showtime's bantamweight tournament. Both Mares and Darchinyan (35-3, 27KOs) will return in separate fights on April 23. Mares faces IBF champion Joseph Agbeko in the tournament final and Darchinyan will clash in the co-feature with Yonnhy Perez.

Darchinyan's team lodged a protest with the American Association of Boxing Commissions and Washington State Department of Licensing after the loss. Mares won the vacant WBC silver title with the win, which is the WBC became involved.

Nassar told AAP that promoter Gary Shaw had been informed by the WBC that it would order a rematch with Mares. He also said there was unlikely to be any imminent official announcement from the sanctioning organization.

"Vic is focused for the Yonnhy Perez fight and we'll take care of the Abner Mares situation after this fight," Nassar said.