Five Australian locations are in contention to host the final eliminator for the IBF junior-middleweight title between Tim Tszyu and Erickson Lubin.
The sanctioning body has demanded that an agreement be reached by July 30, and for all that the promotional organisation No Limit Boxing and Tszyu have said that they believe Lubin, 28, is reluctant to travel to Australia to earn the right to fight the reigning champion Bakhram Murtazaliev, they are exploring five different venues.
A date of September 22 has been targeted – in one of Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, or Brisbane, BoxingScene understands.
The 29-year-old Tszyu – his younger brother Nikita is expected to feature on the undercard – was born in Sydney and lives in nearby Rockdale, which makes Sydney the closest of the five to representing home territory.
Newcastle, also in New South Wales, is the second closest, but Melbourne – which hosts the Australian Open every January – is perhaps more widely recognised as a sports city, and hosted the two world lightweight title fights between Devin Haney and the Sydneysider George Kambosos Jr in 2022.
No Limit Boxing may also have to consider the plans of Matchroom to stage Liam Paro’s first IBF junior-welterweight title defence in either Sydney or his home city of Brisbane in November.
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