Promoter Rodney Berman is confident WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman will deliver on the promise he made last week to WBA and IBO strawweight champion Hekkie Budler.

Sulaiman said he would do his best to ensure that South Africa's only dual world champion unifies his titles with WBC holder Wanheng Menayothin.

The Golden Gloves promoter said Sulaiman made the promise publicly in a press conference in Monaco three days before Budler retained his titles on points against Mexico's Jesus Silvestre last Saturday night.

Budler chalked up his third defence of the WBA belt and the ninth defence of his IBO title. The unification bout would mean he is in line to be the first South African to hold three belts.

Sulaiman is quoted on Golden Gloves's website as saying: "I promise Budler I will do all my best for a unification fight. He is a great South African representative."

Berman said yesterday: "I know that Sulaiman is a man of his word so that bout is on the cards. The beauty is the IBO and WBA presidents Ed Levine and Gilberto Mendoza were also present in Monaco."

HBO programming vice-president Peter Nelson. Nelson was also invited to have a look at Budler in action.

The reason was to try and change HBO's mind on its refusal to televise fights in the strawweight division because the US does not have fighters in that weight classification.

"Who knows, maybe he can change his view on the whole matter about the strawweight division," Berman told Sowetan.

Budler, 27, cruised to a comfortable points victory - improving his fight record to 28 wins, nine by KO, against one loss.

The boxer who is trained by Colin Nathan and Vusi Mtolo, said: "It will be very nice to unify my titles, especially fighting for the WBC belt."