Jesse Rodriguez vacated the title earlier this year
ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez reports that after winning the purse bid for their vacant IBF flyweight title fight, Zanfer Promotions will stage Angel Ayala vs Dave Apolinario on August 9th in Mexico City.
Zanfer regularly partners with Top Rank, so we can presumably expect this on ESPN or ESPN+. Top Rank is reportedly also planning to air Luis Alberto Lopez vs Angelo Leo in New Mexico the following day, but it’s been over a month since news first broke and they’ve yet to officially announce it.
Ayala (17-0, 7 KO) and Apolinario (20-0, 14 KO), who respectively sit at no. 4 and no. 6 in BoxRec’s rankings, first got their marching orders in March after “Bam” Rodriguez vacated the belt to move to 115. Ayala is the younger of the two by a year but is also the more accomplished thanks to decision victories over dangerous veterans Cristofer Rosales and Felix Alvarado.
With this bout filling the IBF vacancy and Riku Kano vs Anthony Olascuaga doing the same for the WBO, all that remains is to find a dance partner for Kenshiro Teraji’s WBC title bout. Ayala was at the top of the list, so the duty now falls to no. 2 Francisco “Chihuas” Rodriguez Jr or the aforementioned Rosales.
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