Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov will enter his next fight as the A-side for a change.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Titov/RCC Boxing Promotions has secured promotional rights for the ordered IBF junior lightweight title eliminator between Tajikistan’s Rakhimov and Mexico’s Eduardo Nunez. Titov, Rakhimov’s career long promoter, bid $305,000 for the fight, which outpaced Matchroom Boxing ($179,500) during Tuesday’s purse bid hearing conducted via Zoom from IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey.
The winner will become the mandatory challenger to unbeaten two-time and reigning titlist Joe Cordina (16-0, 9KOs), who can use the interim period to enter a voluntary title defense.
Cordina and Nunez (25-1, 25KOs) are both promoted by Matchroom Boxing. Rakhimov (17-1-1, 14KOs) is with Titov Boxing though his past two bouts have been on Matchroom shows versus their boxers.
It remains to be seen if Titov will take the fight to Russia, where the company normally stages its events, or will still partner with Matchroom for the event.
The bout was first ordered on October 30, when Rakhimov and Nunez accepted an invitation from the IBF to enter talks. It came after a failed attempt by the sanctioning body to stage a four-man box-off, as there were no takers to separately face either boxer under such circumstances.
Rakhimov previously won the vacant IBF title in a ninth-round knockout of Zelfa Barrett last November 5 in Abu Dhabi. His reign ended less than six months later when he was outpointed by Cordina over twelve rounds on April 22 in the Welshman’s Cardiff hometown.
Nunez has won fifteen in a row, all inside the distance as evident in his 100 percent knockout to win ratio. The 26-year-old slugger from Los Mochis, Mexico most recently scored a highlight-reel second-round knockout of Colombia’s Oscar Escandon. Their October 28 clash came on the undercard of WBC junior lightweight titlist O’Shaquie Foster’s dramatic 12th round knockout of Eduardo ‘Rocky’ Hernandez to retain his title in Cancun, Mexico.
The hope after the fight for Nunez was to face either Foster or Cordina in his next outing. He will instead have to now beat Rakhimov to become the mandatory challenger.
Rakhimov has hovered near the top of the IBF 130-pound rankings for more than four years. He first became mandatory following a September 2019 come-from-behind eighth-round knockout of Azinga Fuzile. The pandemic slowed down his progress as he didn’t receive a title shot until a February 2021 twelve-round draw versus an overweight Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz who was stripped of the belt prior to the fight.
An injury prevented Rakhimov from fighting for the vacant title but was poised to challenge Cordina last November as the mandatory challenger. Ironically, Cordina had to withdraw from their scheduled bout and give up the belt due to injury, at which point Rakhimov faced and defeated Barrett to briefly hold the crown.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
