Artem Dalakian is hit with his second consecutive mandatory title defense.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the WBA has ordered its flyweight titlist to next face number-one contender Seigo Yuri Akui. The two sides were given 30 days to reach terms (despite a ruling that calls for a 60-day period) by September 3 to avoid a purse bid hearing.
“This Thursday, the pioneer body sent the communication to both teams to start negotiations for the fight, as indicated by the WBA internal rules,” WBA Championship Committee chairman Carlos Chavez informed both parties in a ruling obtained by Boxing Scene. “The fight must take place within 90 days from the time it was ordered.”
Dalakian would be entitled to the favorable end of a 75-25 purse split as the defending titlist.
Japan’s Akui (18-2-1, 11KOs) will enter his first career title fight, though the 27-year-old has already faced championship level competition. It came earlier in his career and in back-to-back fights, predating the respective title reigns of countryman Junto Nakatani—against whom Akui suffered a sixth-round technical knockout defeat in August 2017—and Masamichi Yabuki, whom Akui stopped in just 92 seconds.
Nakatani went on to become a two-division titlist and currently holds the WBO junior bantamweight title. Yabaki upset then-unbeaten WBC junior lightweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji in their terrific September 2021 slugfest, but lost the title to Teraji in their immediate rematch last March 18 in Kyoto, Japan.
Akui has won six in a row, including a ten-round decision over undefeated Jayson Vayson on February 4 at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Dalakian (22-0, 15KOs) will attempt the seventh defense of a title reign spray painted over a five-plus year reign. The 35-year-old Azerbaijan-born boxer who lives in Kiev, Ukraine was sidelined for more than a year due to the ongoing Russian invasion of his homeland.
It also left him without a home for his previously ordered mandatory title defense versus unbeaten David Jimenez. A deal was reached with Queensberry Promotions to land the fight on the January 28 Artur Betetbiev-Anthony Yarde undercard at OVO Arena Wembley in London, where Dalakian claimed a twelve-round, unanimous decision victory.
His title reign dates back to a February 2018 points win over former two-division champ Brian Viloria at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The bout was his lone fight outside of Ukraine prior to the win over Jimenez.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox