The International Boxing Federation (IBF) has ordered a featherweight elimination bout between South African boxer Lerato ‘Lights Out’ Dlamini and Tomoki Kameda from Japan.
This order came after Ukranian boxer Arnold Khegai’s withdrawal from his fight against Dlamini. The fight was scheduled for Saturday, 13 July in Johannesburg.
The winner of this bout between Dlamini and Kameda is set to challenge for the IBF featherweight title currently held by Luis Alberto Lopez from Mexico.
“With Khegai pulling out of the eliminator, the IBF would go to the next contender below Khegai and that was Kameda. I did predict this was going to happen, which now sets up the rematch, which was initially going to happen at the end of March, but we exercised our exit clause as Lerato wants to fight for the world title,” Dlamini’s trainer and manager Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan said.
“I’ve already said yes to the order and am just waiting on the Kameda side to accept. I have already been in communication with Kameda Promotions and the fight date is looking likely for the 28th of July in Shiga, Japan, if all goes smoothly on the terms of the contest.”
Dlamini from Welkom in the Free State said about the fight: “I feel good, to be honest. I feel like our paths were supposed to cross one day or another.”
Meanwhile, this is a rematch after Dlamini defeated Kameda on points when the duo clashed in a non-title bout in Japan in October last year.
