Uzbek super bantamweight contender Murodjon Akhmadaliev has been completely siderailed after it was discovered Naoya Inoue and Sam Goodman were ordered by the IBF to face each other. Currently the #1 contender on the WBA’s 122 lbs rankings, Akhmdaliev previously stepped aside willingly to allow Inoue to face Irish contender TJ Doheny, but this decision has come to bite him with the IBF having recently ordered purse bids to occur for the IBF-ordered Inoue-Goodman fight.
As is usually the case with the IBF, with no press release indicating there even was an order for Japanese undisputed super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25 KO’s) and Australian contender Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KO’s) to face each other, Murodjon Akhmadaliev (12-1, 9 KO’s) might have been completely blindsided in this regard.
The IBF’s lack of transparency is now proving to be a genuine problem as Akhmadaliev was likely not aware, especially given boxing writer Dan Rafael reported that the Uzbek contender would protest the IBF mandate:
“NEWS: The IBF today scheduled a purse bid for the Naoya Inoue-Sam Goodman 122 mandatory for Oct. 29. WBA mandtaory Murodjon Akhmadaliev, [whose] shot was previously ordered, has protested the IBF order through his attorney,” Rafael wrote yesterday on his Twitter/X account.
Prior to this revelation, Akhmadaliev had been expected to face Inoue given he had already stepped aside for Inoue to face TJ Doheny in September, thus there was an obligation for the Japanese undisputed champion to meet Akhmadaliev who was made the WBA 122 lbs mandatory challenger earlier this year.
The IBF has ordered purse bids to occur between Inoue and Goodman on October 29, based on their mandate which The Ring confirmed to have been initiated in mid-September.
“On September 12, 2024 the IBF ordered Champion Naoya Inoue and #1 rated Sam Goodman to begin negotiations,” IBF president Daryl Peoples reportedly stated in a letter addressed to both fighters’ promoters. “An agreement could not be reached during the time frame allotted. The IBF is [therefore] ordering a purse bid in this office on Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 12 Noon. Bids must be submitted at 11:45 AM to be promptly opened at 12 Noon.”
The WBA bears a lot of fault in this scenario too, having completely neglected to order Inoue to face Akhmadaliev after the Japanese champion was given an exemption to face Doheny and defeated the Irishman on September 3rd. That means there had been roughly two weeks between the IBF’s mandate and Inoue’s victory for the WBA to step in and obligate Inoue to face Akhmadaliev per their own rules.
It is important to note that the special permit granted by the WBA to Naoya Inoue did not allow him to sidestep Murodjon Akhmadaliev who willingly allowed [through a step-aside deal1] Inoue to face Doheny last month. When a fighter has received their exemption and engaged in a voluntary title defense, the prior mandate would reset.
However, with the presence of other sanctioning bodies such as the IBF, this complicates such mandates further. Nevertheless, it fell on the WBA to remind both Inoue and Akhmadaliev of the prior mandate they had put in June.
As Dan Rafael indicated, Akhmadaliev will protest this decision, which presumably means he had no knowledge of the IBF mandate given he could have combatted the order last month. According to Rafael, Akhmadaliev will look to address the IBF’s order but the Uzbek contender will also need to correspond with the WBA to seek clarification on why they had not mandated him and Inoue to fight.
Aside from being the WBA 122 lbs mandatoryu challenger, Murodjon Akhmadaliev further occupies the #1 spot on the WBA’s super bantamweight ranking boards. Akhmadaliev earned the mandatory challenger position almost a year ago after defeating Mexican contender Kevin Gonzalez (27-1-1, 14 KO’s) in a WBA final eliminator2.
- An agreement where a fighter accepts compensation to temporarily forgo their sanctioning body-mandated bout, allowing another match to occur―often between the champion they were supposed to fight and another ranked contender. The sidelined boxer typically retains a future title shot or opportunity. ↩︎
- A final eliminator in boxing is a high-stakes bout between two fighters, with the winner earning the right to challenge the current champion for a world title―often culminating in them becoming a “mandatory challenger”. It’s often organized by a sanctioning body (like the WBA, WBC, WBO or IBF) between the two highest-ranked contenders. ↩︎
