The process continues to find a willing opponent to next face Esquiva Falcao.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has ordered a vacant middleweight title fight between Brazil’s Falcao and Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri. The bout was formally ordered on Tuesday and carries a 30-day negotiation period for the two sides to reach terms.
Falcao is promoted by Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank. Gualtieri is represented by Ingo Volckmann’s AGON Sports based out of Berlin. A purse bid hearing will be called if their respective teams cannot find common ground.
Should the matchup make its way to the schedule, the winner will claim the vacant IBF middleweight title. Gennadiy Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) recently gave up the strap in February in lieu of a mandatory title defense versus Falcao (30-0, 20KOs) despite initially going out of his way to have the sanctioning body order the fight.
Falcao became the mandatory challenger following a technical decision win over Patrice Volny in their November 2021 title eliminator between unbeaten contenders. The 2012 Olympic Silver medalist and nine-year pro has fought just once since then, a ten-round shutout victory over Cristian Fabian Rios last May 29 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Contributing to his lengthy inactive stretch was the Golovkin debacle which dragged on for nearly four months, along with a failed attempt to secure a vacant title fight versus Australia’s Michael Zerafa.
The two were ordered to enter negotiations on February 9. Talks came to a halt on March 1 when Top Rank requested the matter head to a purse bid which was scheduled for this past Tuesday. Zerafa initially sought a 30-day extension. Top Rank agreed to seven days, only to rescind its offer which left the IBF to proceed with original plans, unbeknownst to Zerafa whose manager, Grant Elvis Phillips, informed the sanctioning body of their decision to withdraw from the proceedings and the ordered fight.
As previously reported by Boxing Scene, Zerafa is now in talks with WBA middleweight titlist Erislandy Lara.
The development left the IBF to reach down to the next highest-ranked and available contender.
Gualtieri (20-0-1, 7KOs) is the IBF number three ranked middleweight.
The 30-year-old contender from Wuppertal, Germany has never fought outside his home country through more than seven years as a pro. A fight with Falcao would mark a step up in class for Gualtieri, although he has lodged plenty of rounds on the way up the ranks. He has gone the twelve-round distance in each of his last five starts, including a points win over Vincenzo Bevilacqua in his most recent start last September 10 in his Wuppertal hometown.
By Jake Donovan