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Mike Coppinger, ESPN
The IBF on Thursday ordered an Aug. 15 purse bid for a junior welterweight title fight between its champion, Subriel Matias, and mandatory challenger Shohjahon Ergashev, according to a letter obtained by ESPN.
The typical purse split for IBF title fights is 85-15 in favor of the champion, but the split for this matchup will be 70-30 after Ergashev’s promoter, Dmitry Salita, petitioned the organization.
Matias was lined up for a fight with former 140-pound titleholder Sergey Lipinets after Ergashev agreed to a step-aside deal, but those plans later changed.
“There was an agreement from Matias’ camp and PBC/TGB with Lipinets,” Lipinets’ manager, Alex Vaysfeld, told ESPN. “There was no problem with putting that fight on. Salita decided to enforce Ergashev’s position to fight Matias and the IBF didn’t oppose Salita’s demands. PBC offered a deal to Salita to step aside and Ergashev would fight the winner.
“No one deserves the fight with Matias more than Sergey Lipinets, being an ex-IBF champ, and stylistically that would have been a pleasure to watch.”
Instead, it will be Ergashev (23-0, 20 KOs) who lands his first title shot. The 31-year-old from Uzbekistan has never faced a top fighter, but Salita said that’s because Ergashev is a dangerous southpaw puncher.
“We agreed to the step-aside deal and then there was an email from Tom Brown [promoter of PBC fights] to the IBF stating that they no longer wanted an exception, they wanted to go straight to the mandatory,” Salita said. “We were going to do a stay-busy fight on the undercard of Matias-Lipinets. We agreed to that deal. We were good with either option.”
Salita said Ergashev is training with Sugar Hill Steward, who is Tyson Fury’s trainer, and Theo Chambers, who works with Jake Paul.
“It’s been very difficult to line up big names for him to fight,” Salita said. “And we knew the only way to get him on the elite level was to get him in the mandatory position. About six months ago when he was rated No. 3, we went through the list of ranked fighters two times and no one wanted to fight him.”
Now, one of the most electrifying action fighters in boxing has stepped up to the assignment. Matias (20-1, 19 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 6 boxer at 140 pounds, a volume-punching machine with power in both hands.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican captured the vacant title in February with a fifth-round TKO of Jeremias Ponce.
Later this month, the rights to the Matias- Ergashev fight will be auctioned off after the sides couldn’t strike a deal.
PBC didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.