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Austin Williams and Etinosa Oliha to meet in IBF eliminator in Texas
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Austin Williams and Etinosa Oliha are to meet in an IBF middleweight eliminator fight on 19 July in Frisco, Texas.
A statement from AGON Boxing in Germany, which promotes Etinosa's fights, said that the winner of the bout will become the official mandatory challenger for the IBF middleweight championship currently held by Zhanibek Alimkhanuly (who also holds the WBO belt).
Ingo Volckmann, who runs AGON Boxing, said: "We are very proud of Etinosa and of the development of our entire team. Our goal is to position German boxing more strongly internationally again and to give our boxers real world championship chances. The fact that we are now once again bringing a boxer into a final eliminator shows that we are on the right track."
Matchroom Boxing
The venue for the card will be the Ford Center at the Star, which also serves as a training ground for the Dallas Cowboys. In 2018, Errol Spence Jr defended his IBF welterweight champion at the venue, knocking out Carlos Ocampo in one round.
The 19 July bout, which will be broadcast on DAZN, will be the co-headliner on a card topped by the match between Jesse Rodriguez and Phumelele Cafu for the WBC and WBO super-flyweight titles. It is taking place on the same night that Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois meet in their rematch for the heavyweight championship of the world.
Oliha, 21-0 (9), who comes from Turin but is now based in Germany, last fought in September when he stopped Alexander Pavlov in three rounds in Berlin. Previously, Etinosa held the lightly regarded IBO title, winning it from Julio Alamos in Wuppertal, Germany, nearly two years ago.
Williams, 18-1 (12), comes from Milwaukee and is best known to UK audiences for losing in eleven rounds to Hamzah Sheeraz in June last year. Since then, he has rebuilt somewhat with two victories, a stoppage over Gian Carrido in Philadelphia and a points decision over Patrice Volny in Orlando.
Read next | Austin Williams gets best of Patrice Volny in unanimous decision win
Aside from Sheeraz, the other significant name on Williams's record is Steve Rolls, who lost in four rounds to Gennady Golovkin in 2019 and on points to Edgar Berlanga in 2022.
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