LAS VEGAS — Rivals Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions, working together on Saturday night’s Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight championship rematch, have gotten additional business done during fight week, finalizing two more deals.
They put the finishing touches on rescheduling unified junior welterweight world titlist Jose Ramirez’s mandatory defense against PBC fighter Viktor Postol and came to an agreement for the fight between the Top Rank-promoted Kudratillo Abdukakhorov and PBC’s Sergey Lipinets for a vacant interim welterweight title, Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told ESPN on Saturday.
Moretti said he worked out both deals with TGB Promotions president Tom Brown, who promotes most PBC events.
“No issues in getting these fights done,” Moretti said. “We’re just doing what we know how to do. Not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything. I’m sure the dialogue will continue on many levels after Saturday’s mega event.”
Ramirez-Postol will take place May 9 at Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, the home region for Avenal, California, native Ramirez, and it will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card.
The fight was initially scheduled for Feb. 1 on an ESPN card at Mission Hills Haikou resort in Haikou, China, but was postponed on Jan. 23 because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Although the fight had already been signed, Moretti said he and Brown had to tweak some details in the deal when the site was shifted from China to Fresno.
Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs), 27, will be making his fifth title defense. Postol (31-2, 12 KOs), 36, of Ukraine, is a former world titleholder who outpointed Mohamed Mimoune last April in a title eliminator to become one of his mandatory challengers.
Abdukakhorov-Lipinets will headline a PBC card on May 16 in either the Los Angeles area or Las Vegas, Moretti said.
The fight was ordered for the interim title because unified titlist Errol Spence Jr. remains sidelined following an Oct. 10 car accident, leaving him unable to make a mandatory defense against Abdukakhorov (17-0, 9 KOs), 26, an Uzbekistan native fighting out of Malaysia, in a timely fashion. Former junior welterweight world titlist Lipinets (16-1, 12 KOs), 30, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Los Angeles, was the next leading available contender in the IBF rankings.