Esquiva Falcao vs. Michael Zerafa - IBF Ordered

[Ruthless-RKO]

IBF SCHEDULES PURSE BID FOR VACANT TITLE FIGHT BETWEEN FALCAO AND ZERAFA

On February 9th, the IBF ordered Esquiva Falcao of Brazil and Michael Zerafa of Australia to begin negotiations for the IBF middleweight championship that was vacated by Gennadiy Golovkin.

An agreement between the teams of Falcao and Zerafa to stage the fight has not yet been reached, and on March 1st, Top Rank's Carl Moretti (who represents Falcao) requested an immediate purse bid. Therefore, the IBF has scheduled a purse bid for Tuesday, March 14th at 12:00 PM EST.

[Ruthless-RKO]

The WBA wrote: "Originally, Golovkin was supposed to face the IBF mandatory challenger due to the mandatory rotation of fighters between organizations, but the Kazakh relinquished that title today and for that reason the WBA has decided to order the fight against Lara. Golovkin received special permission to move up to super middleweight and face Saul Alvarez last September. That ruling specified that he was to defend his middleweight crown in his next bout against Lara [...] WBA Championship rule C.11 states that the champion must defend the title against the mandatory challenger within 120 days from the date he became champion. In the case of “GGG”, he won it last April 9, so the period expired on August 8, 2022. In case no agreement is reached or any of the parties refuses to negotiate, the WBA Championships Committee may submit the fight to bidding with a split of 75% for Golovkin and 25% for Lara."

[wrighty]

Good fight and one I think Falcao could win. He's taken a while to get to this point.

[gregregegg]

Cant see how this could not happen. Very weak vacant world title gift.. never going to get an oppertunity this juicey... (falco might be decent but hasnt gone near world levle to find out...).

If zerafa wins this surelllly he is in a prime position to sell it to timmy tszyu.... Stadiam fight in Aus.. OR GGG anywhere i guess.

[Cent0089]

Remembering watching Falcao at 2011 worlds and 2012 olympics. 11 years since then and he is nowhere