The WBC's commemorative belt for the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed fight has been blessed by Pope Francis.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman unveiled the special strap, which is emblazoned with the colours of the British and Ukrainian flags, on Monday at the launch press conference for the Matchroom vs Queensbury 5v5 event.
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The iconic green and gold world title is already on the line as one of the four major sanctioning body belts up for grabs on May 18, but the WBC has also made this new belt to pay homage to the fight.
Special WBC belts are often created to commemorate blockbuster events.
There have been roughly 30 of them made since the '24k Gold' strap in 2013.
Examples include the 'Money Belt' for Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor in 2017 and the 'Riyadh Champion Title' for Fury vs Francis Ngannou last year.
READ MORE ON FURY VS USYK
But the WBC's new belt now stands out above their other iterations as the only one to be blessed by The Pope, as can be seen in recent footage released by Sky Sports earlier today.
The WBC was formed in 1963 and is one of the oldest sanctioning bodies in boxing.
It is among the four major organisations which sanction pro boxing bouts, alongside the WBO, WBA and IBF.
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In order for a fighter to become undisputed champion they must win all four major sanctioning body belts.
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Usyk and Fury are bidding to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era next month when they square off at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.
Oleksandr Usyk wows fans with impressive bulky shape as he prepares for massive heavyweight fight with Tyson Fury
The last undisputed champion at the weight was Lennox Lewis, who picked up the distinction when the WBO title wasn't recognised like it is today.
Lewis became undisputed by beating Evander Holyfield in their rematch in 1999.
However, he was not able to defend his status as the WBA stripped him of their title in April 2000 for agreeing to fight Michael Grant instead of their mandatory challenger John Ruiz.
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