Ibeh battles Washington in El Salvador
Nigeria’s world heavyweight boxing title hope, Efe Ajagba, was forced to decline the chance to battle with Cuba’s Felix Sanchez because he was offered a “poor” purse, The Guardian has learnt.
The IBF had ordered a heavyweight title eliminator between Sanchez and Ajagba with the winner getting the chance to fight for the title held by Oleksandr Usyk.
The fight was to be promoted Sampson Lewkowicz’s Sampson Boxing, but Ajagba was disappointed with his end of the purse split and opted to move on from the opportunity, wrote boxingscene.com via boxinginsider’s Carlos Linares.
There were several delays in getting the purse bid for the fight, which would have represented a rematch to their meeting in October 2021, won by Sanchez via 10-round, unanimous decision.
Following Ajagba’s withdrawal, Sanchez is now waiting for the next steps from the IBF on the title elimination process. As a sanction for withdrawing from the bout, Ajagba, who was the IBF’s number-three contender, has now dropped out of the top 10. Additionally, he will be ineligible to participate in any IBF-sanctioned contest for a minimum of six months.
Meanwhile, another Nigerian heavyweight boxer fighting out of the United States, Kingsley Ibeh, will meet Gerald Washington on September 20 in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, as part of the country’s intention to host more professional boxing and combat sports events, writes boxingscene.com.
Ibeh, promoted by Toro Promotions, is a 31-year-old Nigerian now living in Arizona. The six-foot-four fighter has an athletic background: he is a former Canadian pro football player, and Ike Ibeabuchi is his cousin.
Ibeh, 15-2-1 (13 KOs), lost a split decision in his second pro fight in October 2019, fought to a draw with Guido Vianello in October 2020, and was knocked out in six rounds by a young Jared Anderson in February 2021. Since then, he has gone 10-0, his most recent victory happening in January, when he put away the 17-6-2 Scott Alexander in the first round.
