By Miguel Rivera

According to World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman, his organization is following through with their plan in the wake of the announcement that junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) is heading up to the welterweight division.

In August, Crawford knocked out Julius Indongo to unify the entire division by bringing together the WBO, WBA, IBF, WBC titles. Crawford has already vacated his IBF, WBO belts. And he fully intends to head up to 147-pounds.

The first piece of the puzzle is now set. Number one contender Amir Imam will fight third ranked Jose Ramirez for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.

Sulaiman informed ESPN Deportes that he plans to issue an order which directs number two ranked Regis Prograis to fight number four Viktor Postol for the interim title.

The winner of Ramirez vs. Imam, which is expected to take place in February, will have to make a mandatory defense against the Prograis vs. Postol winner.

Imam (21-1, 18 KOs) has won three in a row since getting knocked out by Adrian Granados in November 2015. At the time of that fight, Imam was the mandatory challenger to the WBC title and was facing Granados to stay busy. Imam picked up a TKO win last weekend in Fresno, California.

Ramirez (21-0, 16 KOs) also saw action in Fresno last week, when he blasted out undefeated Mike Reed in two rounds, as part of an ESPN televised doubleheader, and in the process retained the WBC Continental Americas title.

Prograis (20-0, 17 KOs) is a rising star in the division. He had an impressive win back in June, when he destroyed Joel Diaz Jr. in a Showtime televised fight.

Postol (29-1, 12 KOs) has only fought once since losing a twelve round decision to Crawford in their unification last July. He came back in September and fought Jamshidbek Najmiddinov. During the fight, Postol was dropped hard and nearly got stopped, but survived and fought his way to a unanimous decision win in Kiev.