TGB Promotions has secured the rights to the Emmanuel Rodriguez-Melvin Lopez vacant IBF bantamweight title fight.
The California-based outfit submitted $25,000, the minimum acceptable amount, as the lone bidder during Tuesday’s hearing conducted via Zoom from IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey. Neither a firm date nor location were established at the time of the purse bid, though BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the bout is due to land on a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) show between late spring and early summer.
Both boxers are expected to make far more than the result of Tuesday’s 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.
Rodriguez-Lopez was first ordered on February 28. The bout came to surface after previous top-rated IBF bantamweight Vincent Astrolabio (18-3, 13KOs) opted to instead challenge for the vacant WBO title versus Australia’s Jason Moloney, with their bout due to take place on a Top Rank-promoted ESPN show on May 13 in Stockton, California.
Rodriguez is promoted by Juan Orengo’s Fresh Productions but is, by and large, a PBC fighter. Nicaragua’s Lopez—now based out of Miami—is guided by longtime William Ramirez, whose team includes Gibbons as an adviser and who was directly involved in talks including his role in calling for a purse bid hearing.
A deal was expected to be reached but a purse bid was instead requested on April 4 by Gibbons. Either party in an ordered title fight or eliminator can call for a purse bid at any time during negotiations.
Rodriguez was the highest ranked available contender by the IBF, on the strength of his one-sided, technical decision win over previously unbeaten Gary Antonio Russell in their title eliminator 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.
Lopez (29-1, 19KOs) entered the mix once Astrolabio opred to go the WBO route. The hard-hitting Nicaraguan 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.
Instead, he was strangely demoted one spot in the next set of WBA rankings, trading places with Venezuela’s Solis who instead challenged for the title. The younger Inoue won by unanimous decision in their April 8 meeting in Tokyo to become the first crowned bantamweight titleholder in the post-Naoya Inoue era.
Rodriguez previously held the IBF title, which he won in a May 2018 victory over Butler. One successful defense foilowed, a split decision victory over Australia’s Jason Moloney in their October 2018 World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) tournament. Rodriguez advanced to the WBSS semifinal round before suffering a second-round knockout loss to Inoue in their May 2019 WBSS semifinal.
The 30-year-old Boricua is 2-1 with one No-Contest in his post-title run. The win over Russell came more than a year after their August 2021 meeting ended in just 16 seconds, when a cut from a clash of heads left Rodriguez unable to continue.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox