Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Marlon Tapales are again on the negotiating desk.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the IBF has postponed a beforehand scheduled purse bid listening to for the IBF ordered Akhmadaliev-Tapales necessary junior featherweight title combat. The session was on account of happen on Tuesday at IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey however has been pushed again to January 3 on the request of each camps who now really feel there’s a likelihood to succeed in a deal.
The event comes after the Tapales aspect known as for an instantaneous purse bid when the combat was first reordered earlier this month. Akhmadaliev—the unified WBA/IBF junior featherweight titlist—beforehand filed for and was granted a medical exception on the finish of the prior negotiation interval, stemming from an harm he sustained in a twelfth-round knockout win over Ronny Rios in his WBA necessary on June 25 in San Antonio, Texas.
Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8KOs)—a 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist for Uzbekistan who trains out of Indio, Caliofrnia—was initially ordered to enter talks with Tapales (36-3, 19KOs) on January 4. The 2 sides got till February 2 to succeed in a deal. That order was rescinded, as soon as it was realized the WBA was first within the rotation of necessary title defenses.
Tapales’ aspect argued on the time that Rios misplaced his place in line after testing optimistic for Covid forward of his initially scheduled combat with Akhmadaliev final November 19 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The WBA finally acquired its means, with Akhmadaliev dealing with and defeating Rios in a twelfth-round stoppage on June 25 in San Antonio, Texas.
The win got here at a price, with Akhmadaliev struggling a damaged left hand. His workforce—Matchroom Boxing and World of Boxing—used the harm to their benefit as soon as the IBF put its necessary title combat again in play in September. The 30-day interval met not with a deal in place however with Akhmadaliev submitting a medical exception proper on the October 25 deadline.
It purchased one other 5 weeks for the unbeaten Uzbek earlier than the combat was ordered earlier this month for a 3rd time. Tapales’ workforce—a large group consisting of MP Promotions, Sanman Boxing, Shapiro Sports activities, and Viva Promotions—wasn’t excited by ready any longer than vital, contacting the IBF to bypass the negotiation interval and name for a handbag bid, which both aspect is permitted to do at any time.
Akhmadaliev’s prior IBF necessary title protection was honored final April 3, when he scored a fifth-round knockout of IBF necessary challenger Ryosuke Iwasa in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The bout was his first in his residence nation since an beginner match in 2017, one 12 months after claiming a Bronze medal for Uzbekistan within the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Tapales, a 30-year-old southpaw from Kapatagan, Philippines, punched his means again into title competition following a second-round knockout of Hiroaki Teshigawara. The bout served as a title eliminator on the request of Tapales’ workforce. Tapales rose to the event, flooring Teshigawara thrice in simply 3:06 price of ring motion in forcing the stoppage of their December 11 conflict.
It was a much more memorable ending than his earlier title eliminator, two years virtually to the day of his win over Teshigawara.
Tapales suffered an eleventh-round stoppage to Iwasa of their December 2019 eliminator in Brooklyn, New York, which ended a twelve-fight win streak. He has since received three straight heading into his first profession title combat, together with a second-round knockout of Jose Estrella in a stay-busy affair on Could 14 at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park.
Per IBF purse bid guidelines, neither fighter is permitted to enter an settlement for an additional bout in the course of the interval for the ordered title combat.
Ought to the additional two weeks nonetheless fail to supply a deal, the combat will head again to a handbag bid listening to on January 3. The minimal accepted bid is $200,000, with Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8KOs) due 65 p.c of the profitable quantity because the reigning champ.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox