What will happen to the boxer's championship belt if he is being stripped?

Question

What will happen to the boxer's championship belt if he is being stripped?

Answer 1

If it is a sanctioning body's belt such as the WBA, WBC, IBF, or WBO, it will become vacant and the 2 highest ranked available contenders will fight for the belt.

Example: Antonio Margarito chose to fight Miguel Cotto for the WBA title instead of face his IBF mandatory Joshua Clottey.  As a result, the IBF stripped him, and now Clottey (number 1 contender in the IBF rankings) will fight Zab Judah (number 3 contender) for the vacant title.  The number 2 contender Andre Berto chose to fight for the vacant WBC title instead, so he was and is now ignored in the IBF's rankings.

If you have the Ring Magazine belt, you cannot get stripped.  The only way that you can lose it is by losing a championship fight, moving permanently to another division, or retiring.

Answer 2

other top boxers in that division get to fight for it.