By Luke Furman

Earlier, BoxingScene.com's Steve Kim first reported that Eleider Alvarez has decided not to participate in Friday's WBC purse bid for a fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

The World Boxing Council had recently issued an order, where they approved Adonis Stevenson's request to defend his world title against Badou Jack. And, they also ordered a final eliminator between Alvarez and Gvozdyk. The winners of the two contests would then have to face one another.

Alvarez (23-0, 11 KO's) has been the mandatory challenger to Stevenson since November of 2015, when he scored a decision win over Isaac Chilemba in a WBC final eliminator.

Alvarez then picked up a final eliminator win over Lucian Bute with a knockout in February of last year, then went through with another final eliminator with Jean Pascal in June - and won that fight with a twelve round decision.

The 33-year old native of Colombia was expected to fight Stevenson in December - but the champion was angling to stray away from Alvarez and instead go forward with a more lucrative fight, with Jack, who is promoted by Floyd Mayweather.

Alvarez's promoter, Yvon Michel of GYM, has responded to BoxingScene's story, explaining why they saw no point in doing another final eliminator with Gvozdyk (14-0, 11 KO's).

"Alvarez has wins in three final title eliminator and currently hold wins versus the #9, #10 and #12 WBC contenders. He has stepped aside only once, never got money for it and we can’t see the logic to have to do a fourth title eliminator. He is number one on merits! His goal is to fight against the champion," Michel stated to BoxingScene.com.

Michel is also the promoter of Stevenson, but the champion's career moves are being guided by his manager, Al Haymon - so the Canadian promoter is caught in the middle.

It's not clear if the WBC will remove Alvarez from his mandatory position, order the winner of Stevenson-Jack to fight Gvozdyk or make the Ukrainian boxer fight someone else.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.