Account
Don’t have an account? Sign up
Help and preferences
Help
Settings & privacy
Lerato Dlamini-Arnold Khegai: TGB Promotions Outbids Top Rank For IBF Title Eliminator
Article hero background
Lerato Dlamini-Arnold Khegai: TGB Promotions Outbids Top Rank For IBF Title Eliminator
Link copied!
Dec 13, 2024
Dec 13, 2024
1 min read
Arnold Khegai’s first fight with Top Rank could take place on a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) show. TGB Promotions won a purse bid hearing for an ordered IBF featherweight title eliminator between Khegai and Lerato Dlamini. The PBC-predominant outfit ...
Arnold Khegai’s first fight with Top Rank could take place on a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) show.
TGB Promotions won a purse bid hearing for an ordered IBF featherweight title eliminator between Khegai and Lerato Dlamini. The PBC-predominant outfit bid $71,000 to edge Top Rank ($65,000) during Tuesday’s session.
South Africa’s Dlamini will earn 75 percent of the bid ($53,250) as the higher ranked contender. Khegai is due the remaining 25 percent ($17,750) as the number three contender, one place below Dlamini.
TGB has 14 days to return signed contracts to the IBF and 90 days from Tuesday’s purse bid to stage the fight. The winner will become the mandatory to IBF featherweight titlist Luis Alberto Lopez (30-2, 17 knockouts),No. 1 at 126.
Per IBF Rule 9.c, both boxers are required to move forward with the fight to avoid being demoted in the IBF rankings.
Dlamini (20-2, 11 KOs) is seemingly all in for the eliminator. He even abandoned a previously scheduled March 31 rematch with Tomoki Kameda in Nagoya, Japan. The two were due to run it back after Dlamini scored an upset decision win last October 7 in Tokyo.
However, a trap door clause was in Dlamini’s contract. Kameda Promotions was required to gain sanctioning from the IBF as a title eliminator. The absence of those stakes provided Dlamini with room to walk from the fight.
An arguably tougher assignment awaits in Khegai, (21-1-1, 13 KOs), a Ukraine-born boxer of Korean descent.
Khegai has won five straight fights since a January 2020 defeat to then-unbeaten Stephen Fulton in Brooklyn, New York. The bout was a sanctioned WBO 122-pound title eliminator. Philadelphia's Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs),No. 1 at 122, went on to win the WBO and WBC titles at the weight.
The defeat was the last at 122 for Khegai, now a featherweight and who has since signed with Top Rank. His most recent victory came in a third-round knockout of Jon Martinez on January 27 in Barcelona, Spain.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
News
Noticias de combate
Article thumbnail
Next
Conor Benn believes he should have won a decision
RELATED ARTICLES
Corey Erdman: Cloaked in blood and sweat of Ali and Frazier, Madison Square Garden readies for another big fight
Analysis
Corey Erdman: Cloaked in blood and sweat of Ali and Frazier, Madison Square Garden readies for another big fight
Who wins Bakhram Murtazaliev-Josh Kelly, and what will it mean?
Analysis
Who wins Bakhram Murtazaliev-Josh Kelly, and what will it mean?
Xander Zayas, Javiel Centeno Eye History in Puerto Rico
Analysis
Xander Zayas, Javiel Centeno Eye History in Puerto Rico
RELATED ARTICLES
Corey Erdman: Cloaked in blood and sweat of Ali and Frazier, Madison Square Garden readies for another big fight
Analysis
Corey Erdman: Cloaked in blood and sweat of Ali and Frazier, Madison Square Garden readies for another big fight
Who wins Bakhram Murtazaliev-Josh Kelly, and what will it mean?
Analysis
Who wins Bakhram Murtazaliev-Josh Kelly, and what will it mean?
Xander Zayas, Javiel Centeno Eye History in Puerto Rico
Analysis
Xander Zayas, Javiel Centeno Eye History in Puerto Rico
Can you beat Coppinger?

Lock in your fantasy picks on rising stars and title contenders for a shot at $100,000 and exclusive custom boxing merch.

Can you beat Coppinger?
Partners
  • Strategic
    Partners
  • Strategic Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight
    Partners
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Heavyweight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight
    Partners
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Middlewight Partners partner logo
  • Lightweight
    Partners
  • Lightweight Partners partner logo
  • Lightweight Partners partner logo
  • Lightweight Partners partner logo
  • Partners
  • Partners partner logo
  • Partners partner logo
  • Partners partner logo
  • Partners partner logo
  • Promoters
  • Promoters partner logo
  • Promoters partner logo
  • Promoters partner logo
  • Promoters partner logo
  • Promoters partner logo
  • Promoters partner logo