BY JAKE DONOVAN
August 29, 2023 Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
The previously-ordered Artem Dalakian-Seigo Yuri Akui title fight will head to a purse bid hearing.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the WBA has scheduled a September 8 date for its mandatory flyweight title fight. The two sides were granted 30 days to reach a deal but were unable to come to terms.
The minimum acceptable bid is $80,000. Dalakian (22-0, 15KOs) is entitled to the favorable end of a 75-25 purse split as the reigning beltholder for what would mark his seventh title defense. The 35-year-old Azerbaijan-born boxer who lives in Kiev, Ukraine was sidelined for more than a year due to the ongoing Russian invasion of his homeland. It also left him without a home for his previously ordered mandatory title defense versus unbeaten David Jimenez.
A deal was reached with Queensberry Promotions to land the fight on the January 28 Artur Beterbiev-Anthony Yarde undercard at OVO Arena Wembley in London. Dalakian claimed a twelve-round, unanimous decision victory.
His title reign dates to a February 2018 points win over former two-division champ Brian Viloria at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The bout was his lone fight outside of Ukraine prior to the win over Jimenez.
Japan’s Akui (18-2-1, 11KOs) will enter his first career title fight, though the 27-year-old has already faced championship level competition. It came earlier in his career and in back-to-back fights, predating the respective title reigns of countryman Junto Nakatani—against whom Akui suffered a sixth-round technical knockout defeat in August 2017—and Masamichi Yabuki, whom Akui stopped in just 92 seconds.
Nakatani went on to become a two-division titlist and currently holds the WBO junior bantamweight title. Yabaki upset then-unbeaten WBC junior lightweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji in their terrific September 2021 slugfest, but lost the title to Teraji in their immediate rematch last March 18 in Kyoto, Japan. Akui has won six in a row, including a ten-round decision over undefeated Jayson Vayson on February 4 at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
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