Canelo Alavrez has been ordered to defend his middleweight crown against Sergiy Derevyanchenko by the IBF, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“Negotiations should commence immediately and be concluded by June 15, 2019,” the IBF wrote. The fight is due by August 4th.
“It’s really surprising and unfortunate that we didn’t get a congratulations letter [from the IBF] like we would in the past,” Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN. “We will be meeting with Canelo in the next week or so to see what he would like to do.”
“Now that the IBF has ordered immediate negotiations between the two sides, I will sit down with Sergiy, [adviser] Al Haymon and Lou DiBella next week and talk about the best course of action,” Keith Connolly, Derevyanchenko’s manager, told ESPN.
