By Miguel Rivera
The IBF final eliminator between the Puerto Rico's Emmanuel "Manny" Rodriguez and Argentine veteran Omar Narvaez, that was announced for the 13th of January, has found a stumbling block.
The fight will be postponed to a date in March "due to a television problem", as has been reported by several media outlets in Argentina.
However, Juan Orengo, manager of Rodriguez, told reporter Carlos Gonzalez that he is waiting to hear some official news from promoter Osvaldo Rivero.
"Those rumors started circulating on Tuesday. I'm waiting for Rivero to communicate with us. We are talking about an eliminator fight that is scheduled. We do not have anything official and Manny continues to train," Orengo told the media.
In fact, Orengo expressed disbelief at the limited amount of communication he has had with Rivero. The Rodriguez-Narvaez winner will challenge 118-pound champion Lee Haskins.
"I look at it as something weird, but we do not know. It may be true or not. Our plan was to bring that fight to Puerto Rico, but Rivero offered an absurd amount of money to win the purse bid," he said.
Orengo warned that Rodríguez will continue with the work plan until he knows if, in effect, the bout will be postponed until March.
"We are willing to wait, but the IBF has not told me if there is a date change. The purse bid was held in October and the original plan was to make the fight on December 10. The last time Manny fought was in June, and if he has to wait it would be nine months of inactivity, but he has remained very active in the gym and that should not affect him. He wants to fight for a world title," Orengo said.
