After dishing out a dominant performance against Briton, Charlie Edwards, in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-bantamweight elimination bout in May, it was hoped that Sikho ‘Sequence’ Nqothole would challenge for the world title before the end of this year.
However, Nqothole is not going to challenge current IBF junior-bantamweight champion, Andrew Moloney, any time soon as the Australian will defend his crown against Japanese boxer, Masamichi Yabuki, who is the reigning IBF flyweight titlist.
Moloney became the new IBF junior-bantamweight champion after he dethroned Willibaldo Garcia Perez from Mexico via a majority decision in June.
“Moloney is still in a voluntary space. I have heard that he’s going to defend against Yabuki in December and we will then get an opportunity to fight for the world title after that,” Nqothole’s manager, Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan, said.
The award-winning Nathan added: “It’s frustrating, but we have been in this before. They can’t avoid us, we are number one. They will have to fulfil their mandatory obligations.”
Meanwhile, Yabuki has defended his IBF crown twice against Mexican boxer, Rene Calixto Bibiano, in June and Felix Alvarado in December, since winning it after he defeated Angel Ayala Lardizabal from Mexico in March last year. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
