By Miguel Rivera
According to promoter Fernando Beltrán of Zanfer Promociones, Jose 'Bolivita' Uzcategui will battle Andre Dirrell on May 20 in Washington DC. The two super middleweights will collide of the interim-title of the International Boxing Federation.
The interim title was approved for the bout after defending champion James DeGale suffered several injuries during his January unification bout with World Boxing Council champion Badou Jack. The contest ended in a twelve round draw.
Beltran told ESPN Deportes that his boxer is ready to go and motivated to bring that title back to Mexico.
Uzcategui, who is Venezuelan, has a streak of four wins in a row. He was going to fight DeGale last year, but suffered an injury that forced him to withdraw. DeGale instead fought Roger 'Porky' Medina in a clash where the champion had his struggles and was forced to dig deep to win.
However, Uzcategui wants to redeem himself by capturing a title. He's been looking very dangerous since suffering a decision loss to Olympian Matt Korobov.
Although he has not had a lot of activity as of late, Uzcategui (26-1, 22 KO) maintained a high ranking position under the IBF and feels ready for the task of taking on Dirrell (25-2, 16 KO). Andre has had only two defeats and they were against Carl Froch and DeGale - and both were highly competitive contests.
For Dirrell, this will be his third shot at capturing a title. He lost out in two previous title attempts when he faced Froch and DeGale.
Because of his injuries, DeGale will not be ready to enter the ring until July. DeGale is likely going to pursue the biggest fight possible when he returns. He was trying to get a rematch with Jack, but those plans were quickly dashed away when Jack announced that he was moving up to the light heavyweight division.