By Jake Donovan

For better or for worse, Amnat Ruenroeng and Johnriel Casimero will meet again in the ring.

A deal has in place for the past several weeks for their flyweight title fight rematch, only to have to wait on a date and location. Both aspects are now set, as BoxingScene.com has learned the bout will take place May 25 in Beijing, China as part of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) annual convention.

IBF officials confirmed the bout and the show to BoxingScene.com on Wednesday evening.

Several more IBF-themed bouts will be added to the convention showcase event. Already confirmed to appear on the bill is former World Boxing Council strawweight titlist Xiong Zhao Zhong – the first-ever boxer from China to claim a major title. He will face a yet-to-be-determined opponent in an IBF strawweight title eliminator, with the winner due to next face recently crowned titlist Jose Argumedo.

Zhao Zhong is currently the highest ranked contender – at #3 - in the IBF stawweight ratings and will go down the list before landing the next highest-ranked opponent. Currently ranked #4 is Japan’s Takumi Sakae, but that will change upon the next ratings update as he recently suffered a 10-round points loss to countryman Tatsuya Fukuhara last weekend.

Rated behind in Sakae is Colombia’s Jose Jimenez, who is unbeaten in his last seven starts but against roadkill-level competition. After that is former three-time strawweight champ Katsunari Takayama, whose most recent reign ended with a shocking decision loss to Argumedo last New Year’s Eve at home in Osaka, Japan.

As for the main event, the sequel will come 11 months after their controversial meet last June in Ruenroeng’s native Thailand.

The defending champ claimed a 12-round decision win in one of the ugliest – and worst officiated – title fights in recent memory. The foul-filled affair went virtually unsupervised for much of the night by badly faded referee Larry Doggett, who permitted multiple clinches, shoving and headbutts before finally disciplining Ruenroeng in round eleven.

By that point, the unbeaten Thai boxer had the fight well in the bag, winning by a comfortable decision. Casimero (21-3, 13KOs) and his team didn’t take issue with the final scoring, but more so the mishandling of the fight in campaigning for an immediate rematch.

The former junior flyweight titlist from Philippines was granted his wish, but hasn’t fought since that night. A big hangup in negotiations was securing a neutral location for the rematch, rather than take on all of Thailand in returning to Ruenroeng's homeland.

His wish has been granted. Even though it's a much shorter trip for Ruenroeng, it stands to reason that Part Two will be much better supervised than was the case in the original. 

"Every IBF-licensed official in the world will be in Beijing and watching this fight," noted one member of Ruenroeng's camp to BoxingScene.com upon confirmation of the fight. "All Johnriel has to worry about this time is going in the ring and fight his fight for 12 rounds." 

Ruenroeng (17-0, 5KOs) has made one additional defense since their first meet, a clear 12-round unanimous decision nod over Japan’s Myung Ho Lee last December in Thailand.

The 36-year old boxer will fight outside of his home country for the third time in his career. Oddly enough, the previous road trips produced the best wins of his career.

Four months after claiming the vacant flyweight belt, Ruenroeng traveled to Japan where he soundly outboxed Kazuto Ioka in their May ’14 clash. Ioka was an unbeaten former two-division champ at the time, having since added a separate version of the flyweight crown to his collection.

Ten months later came his lone other pro fight in China, scoring a 12-round decision over Zou Shiming – widely credited for bringing big time boxing to the most heavily-populated nation in the world that only in recent years lifted a longtime ban that was placed on the sport. Shiming is a three-time Olympic medalist – including two Gold medals – but was no match for the vastly superior skilled Ruenroeng in their title fight last March.

Sandwiched in between was a close but well-earned Sept. ’14 split decision win over Puerto Rico’s McWilliams Arroyo – a 2008 Olympian whom next faces World flyweight champ Roman Gonzalez on April 23 in Inglewood, Calif.

Ruenroeng’s most recent title defense came last December, outpointing Japan’s Myung Ho Lee over 12 rounds in Thailand.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox