The long wait will finally be over for 32 year-old Vusi “Marvellous” Malinga when he fights Leo Santa Cruz for the vacant IBF bantamweight title at the Home Depot Centre in Los Angeles on June 2.
LOS ANGELES – A mix of boxing legends, undefeated contenders and a current world champion converged in Los Angeles for a wild, emotional and often heated press conference on Monday to formally announce the upcoming Saturday, June 2 Quadrupleheader live on SHOWTIME® from The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.:
This comes after Abner Mares, also from Mexico, vacated the belt to move up in weight and will exchange leather with Eric Morel in a WBC junior-featherweight title fight on Saturday. "This is a perfect opportunity for me to win a credible world title," said Malinga, a former WBC international and WBA Pan African champion. Malinga's promoter, Branco Milenkovic, said negotiations with Golden Boy Promotions for Malinga's slugfest with the US-based Cruz were at an advanced stage. Schaefer said: "We are trying to finalise it. We made a strong offer and we've done business with Branco before and we've never had problems. "We treated each other with respect."