IBF officials have immediately moved on from Janibek Alimkhanuly.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the sanctioning body has ordered a vacant middleweight title fight between Etinosa Oliha and Shakiel Thompson. Their respective teams were instructed to begin negotiations for the fight to crown a new IBF titlist at the weight.
“In an effort to determine a Champion in the division, the IBF is ordering a bout between these two contenders,” IBF Championships Chairman George Martinez instructed both parties in a ruling obtained by BoxingScene. “The winner will be the new IBF Middleweight Champion.”
Italy’s Oliha, 22-0 (10 KOs), is promoted by AGON Sports, while England’s Thompson, 15-0 (11 KOs), is with Queensberry Promotions.
The need to crown a new king arose after Kazakhstan’s Alimkhaniuly, 17-0 (12 KOs), was stripped by the IBF surrounding a positive drug test for the banned substance Meldonium. The unbeaten southpaw was issued one-year suspensions by both the IBF and WBO, which left him unavailable to satisfy his next mandatory title defense by July.
That said, there is a minor obstacle regarding the abovementioned matchup - though with a workaround according to IBF rules.
Thompson – who is the IBF’s No. 3 contender, one spot below Oliha - is currently scheduled to face countryman Brad Pauls, 20-2-1 (11 KOs), on Queensberry’s March 28 “Magnificent 7” show in Manchester, England. The fact that the fight is already scheduled should have delayed the ordered fight.
That said, Thompson could still have his cake and it, too.
According to rule IBF Rule 6.A covering vacant title fights, “If the vacancy arises unexpectedly and if one of the two leading contenders has a fight scheduled within the next 30 days, the president and championships chair may, at their discretion, allow that bout to take place prior to the notification to fill the vacancy and utilize and new ratings after the interim bout.”
Either way, Oliha will now get his title shot after a tumultuous 2025.
The unbeaten contender spent most of the year involved in two-separately ordered IBF 160lbs title eliminators. Oliha was previously due to face Kyrone Davis last spring. The two sides previously reached an agreement for the fight to take place in Oliha’s native Italy.
Plans fell apart, however, when Davis’ side unsuccessfully sought to have the fight relocated on an already scheduled Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Prime Video card in Las Vegas. Davis withdrew and wound up fighting on the abovementioned show, albeit in a 10-round shutout loss to unbeaten Yoenli Hernandez.
Meanwhile, Oliha moved on to a planned showdown with Austin “Ammo” Williams. Their ordered fight went to a purse bid, won by Matchroom Boxing who sought to stage the fight on a July 19 show headlined by Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in the greater Dallas (Texas) area.
However, Oliha was pulled from the event early in fight week when the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation denied him a license due to the results of a pre-fight eye exam.
The matter was since resolved and Oliha was cleared to return to the ring a few weeks later. It led to his one fight of the year, a third-round knockout last September 12 in Berlin.
Per IBF Rule 9 covering negotiations for ordered fights, both parties are obligated to move forward with negotiations – and the terms of a purse bid, should it come to that. Should either side drop out of the process, the unavailable boxer will drop out of the top 10 for at least six months and will be ineligible during that time to participate in any IBF-sanctioned bouts.
