By Yuri Tarantin

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has commented on the recent inclusion of former world champion Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26KOs) as the number two ranked fighter in the WBC's ratings at 175-pounds.

Last month, Kovalev lost a close twelve round decision to Andre Ward at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ward picked up Kovalev's WBA, IBF and WBO world titles. There is a rematch clause, which Kovalev is pursuing for the first half of 2017.

The current WBC light heavyweight champion is Adonis Stevenson. His mandatory challenger is Eleider Alvarez, who faces Lucian Bute in the coming months. The winner of that contest will face Stevenson in April.

Sulaiman sees no reason as to why Kovalev should not be included, in a high position, within their rankings.

"Kovalev returned to the rating because he deserves to occupy a high position there, and now he can to fight for the WBC title," said Suleiman.

There are a lot of questions regarding the WBC's move. If Kovalev wins the rematch with Ward and reclaims his world titles, under the WBC guidelines he should lose that ranking. But if Kovalev loses the rematch, the WBC might keep his ranking in place.

If Stevenson will move forward against the Alvarez-Bute winner in April, Kovalev would be the next fighter in line for a shot. Two years ago, the WBC made a controversial ruling where they placed Kovalev - who at the time held three titles from rival sanctioning bodies - as the mandatory challenger to Stevenson.

After months of failed discussions, the fight never happened and Kovalev's team refused to go forward with an ordered purse bid - because there was a high probably that Stevenson's side would win and bring the fight to Showtime, but Kovalev is contracted to rival network HBO.

Yuri Tarantin covers boxing for Allboxing.ru