Either a massive event is being planned by Premier Boxing Champions for July 15 or the date merely serves as a placeholder for several fights currently in play.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the Emmanuel Rodriguez-Melvin Lopez vacant IBF bantamweight title fight is currently budgeted to land on the midsummer date. According to correspondence between the sanctioning body and TGB Promotions, the fight is due to take place in Las Vegas.
“The IBF has granted formal sanction approval for the IBF Bantamweight vacant title fight between Emmanuel Rodriguez and Melvin Lopez,” IBF Championship Committee chairman Carlos Ortiz told TGB Promotions’ Tom Brown in an official letter, a copy of which was obtained by BoxingScene.com. “The bout is scheduled to take place on July 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.”
It is unclear if Rodriguez-Lopez will be part of a Showtime Championship Boxing telecast or a Showtime Pay-Per-View event should a certain welterweight championship. Representatives from both camps declined comment since the fight was not formally announced beyond its promotional ties via recent purse bid hearing.
TGB Promotions obtained the rights to the bout as the lone bidder during an April 18 hearing conducted via Zoom from IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey. A minimum accepted bid of $25,000 was placed to secure the rights to the fight, though both boxers are expected to make far more than the result of the purse bid hearing.
The winner of the bout will claim the vacant IBF bantamweight title left behind by Naoya Inoue (24-0, 21KOs), who abdicated the undisputed championship throne in January to compete at junior featherweight.
Puerto Rico’s Rodriguez (21-2, 13KOs; 1NC) previously held the IBF bantamweight title, which he claimed in a May 2018 victory over England’s Paul Butler. Just one successful defense followed—a twelve-round victory over Australia’s Jason Moloney—before he was stopped inside of two rounds by Inoue in May 2019.
It was a rough road back to contention, but Rodriguez made his way to the top of the queue after a one-sided, technical decision win over Gary Antonio Russell last October 15 in Brooklyn, New York. The bout was packaged as part of a four-man box-off ordered by the IBF, which included Vincent Astrlolabio’s sixth-round knockout of Nikolay Potapov last December 17 in Las Vegas.
Astrolabio (18-3, 13KOs)—who is also guided by Gibbons—opted to instead pursue the vacant WBO bantamweight title versus Australia’s Jason Moloney (25-2, 19KOs) on May 13 in Stockton, California.
The move left Rodriguez as the highest-ranked contender and in search of a new opponent in a bid to become a two-time IBF bantamweight titlist.
Lopez (29-1, 19KOs)—a Nicaraguan based out of Miami—answered the call, though only after he was previously in line to challenge for the WBA title before a February ratings update bumped him out of contention.
Lopez has won eight in a row since suffering his lone career defeat, a ninth-round knockout of Jose Velazquez in October 2019. His most recent win came in a ten-round decision over Jobert Alvarez last December 11 in Orlando, Florida, as part of a show on the eve of the WBA Centennial Convention. The win should have secured his place in line for a fight with Japan’s Takuma Inoue, Naoya’s younger brother and the leading WBA bantamweight contender.
Inoue went on to defeat Venezuela’s Liborio Solis to win the WBA title, the first vacancy filed in the wake of Naoya’s departure from the division.
Moloney-Astrolabio is next in line, while a date is still sought for the Nonito Donaire-Alexandro Santiago vacant WBC bantamweight title fight. Boxing Scene was informed that Donaire-Santiago is also eyed for July but remains a fluid situation.
The same likely applies to Rodriguez-Lopez, which is one of at least three fights rumored to land on July 15.
As previously reported by Boxing Scene, junior welterweights Sergey Lipinets and Elvis Rodriguez agreed to terms to collide in a non-title fight. Boxing Scene has also learned there are tentative plans for the Thammanoon Niyomtrong-Erick Rosa WBA strawweight title consolidation bout to take place on July 15, as first reported by Big Fight Weekend’s Dan Rafael.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox