Raymond Muratalla’s first title-ish fight will reportedly land in San Diego
Lance Pugmire reports and Mike Coppinger confirms that the IBF interim lightweight title fight between Zaur Abdullaev and Raymond Muratalla, previously planned for April 5th, will instead land in San Diego on May 10th to accommodate Abdullaev’s observance of Ramadan.
Per Pugmire, a planned super lightweight bout between Lindolfo Delgado and Elvis Rodriguez could fill in the original main event slot.
The sanctioning body ordered the bout earlier this year in response to reigning titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko’s uncertain future; “Hi-Tech” reportedly broke off negotiations for a unification bout with Gervonta Davis and has yet to make a clarifying statement despite Bob Arum’s assurance that he would do so around the new year. Hopefully he’ll do so by the time these two share the ring, as retirement would allow this to become a full vacant title bout.
As I said last time, Abdullaev’s (20-1, 12 KO) has done quite well for himself since his infamous knockout loss to Devin Haney and should make for a good fight with Muratalla (22-0, 17 KO), on whom Top Rank has placed plenty of hope.
Read the full article here
