IBF May Order Emmanuel Rodriguez And Vincent Astrolabio To Start Negotiations
With Naoya Inoue vacating the undisputed throne at bantamweight, the division is in need of new champions to rise. The IBF bantamweight title could be put up for grabs in a bout featuring former world champion Emmanuel “Manny” Rodriguez (21-2, 13KO), and Vincent “Asero” Astrolabio (18-3, 13KO).
3Kings Boxing reported that Inoue went to social media and announced he had officially relinquished all the belts. It has created a power vacuum that all the sanctioning bodies will look to fulfill in the upcoming months. The IBF could soon order its two top fighters, Rodriguez and Astrolabio, to begin negotiations.
THE IBF COULD ORDER RODRIGUEZ VS ASTROLABIO
Manny once captured the vacant IBF title after defeating Paul Butler in 2018. He lost the title against Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series tournament in 2019. Furthermore, Rodriguez fought his way back into title contention after defeating Gary Antonio Russell in a title eliminator on October 2022.
In 2022, Astrolabio had an awesome year, first by scoring a controversial victory over two-time super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. Then he scored a sixth-round stoppage over Nikolai Potapov in a title eliminator to close out the year. The 25-year-old Filipino wants nothing more than a chance to fight for the title.
The bantamweight division is about to get overloaded with the sanctioning bodies calling for teams to start negotiations. In addition, there are some very good match-ups that will be coming down the pipe that should capture the boxing community’s attention.
3Kings Boxing will continue to monitor this division and provide any new updates.
By: Bo Bland
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