According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the IBF had ordered an interim welterweight title bout between Sergey Lipinets and Kudratillo Abdukakhorov. The fight will be made in wake of IBF champion Errol Spence being injured in an October car accident.
“IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. has sustained an injury and is unavailable,” IBF champions chairman Carlos Ortiz Jr. wrote to them. “Errol Spence Jr. is also the WBC welterweight champion. Based on a mutual agreement between the IBF and the WBC, Errol Spence Jr. has an obligation to make a mandatory defense of his WBC welterweight title. Errol Spence Jr. is further obligated to make a mandatory defense of the IBF welterweight title within 90 days of his WBC mandatory defense. The IBF is ordering a fight between the leading available contenders for an IBF welterweight interim title.”
