A welterweight fight that has been in development since last fall finally has a date and a home.
The long-ago agreed-to welterweight clash between Kudratillo Abdukakhorov and Sergey Lipinets will now take place October 10, live on Showtime from crowdless Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The bout will be contested for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) interim welterweight title at stake, with the winner will be first in line for a mandatory shot at unified welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr.
For all of the boxing politics in the sport, putting together a fight between boxers representing Premier Boxing Champions (Lipinets) and Top Rank (Abdukakhorov) proved far easier than actually securing a date for the occasion. Both boxers were willing to square off simply when there was little more at stake than simply marking time at a point when it was unclear when Spence (26-0, 21KOs) would be able to return to the ring following injuries sustained in a single car crash last fall.
Their patience now comes with the reward of an interim title at stake, while landing in the middle of a loaded second-half schedule announced by Showtime and PBC on Wednesday.
As the top two contenders, Abdukakhorov and Lipinets (16-1, 12KOs) were sent an invitation to contend for the interim title. Neither side blinked in accepting the offer, with their respective promoters working out the financial aspect of the bout without any real issues—other than being able to find a date and location.
Tentative plans called for the two to collide on the undercard portion of the heavyweight championship rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder this past February in Las Vegas. The hold-up in Spence’s title status delayed that vision, before all involved parties targeted May 16 for the bout—only to get shut down due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The bout will now headline its own tripleheader, aided by a pair of crossroads bouts.
In the chief support, Sacramento’s Xavier Martinez (15-0, 11KOs) will face former secondary featherweight titlist Claudio Marrero in a 10-round junior lightweight bout.
Opening the telecast, Baltimore’s Malik Hawkins (18-0, 11KOs) and Puerto Rico’s Subriel Matias (15-1, 15KOs) collide in a battle of rising junior welterweights.
Uzbekistan’s Abdukakhorov (17-0, 9KOs) has long served as the mandatory challenger to the IBF title which Spence has held since a May 2017 knockout win over England’s Kell Brook. Spence has since added the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight title to his collection following a 12-round win over Shawn Porter in their unification bout and Fight of the Year-level war last September in Los Angeles.
Just two weeks later, Spence suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries in a car crash in downtown Dallas, near his Desoto, Texas home. His recovery process and career update provided the IBF with enough information to determine the need to establish an interim titlist.
Abdukakhorov has since added a win over former welterweight titlist Luis Collazo, which came last October in Philadelphia.
Lipinets (16-1, 12KOs)—a former 140-pound titlist from Woodland Hills, California by way of Kazakhstan—has sought to make his way back to the title scene ever losing his strap in a 12-round decision to Mikey Garcia last March.
Three wins have followed, including a 10th round knockout of former two-division title claimant Lamont Peterson in their Fight-of-the-Year level war last March atop a PBC on FS1 card from Oxon Hill, Maryland. Four months later came his most recent bout, slaughtering Philippines’ Jayar Inson—a late replacement for an ill John Molina Jr.—in two rounds on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight title winning effort over unbeaten Keith Thurman last July in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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