Anthony Cacace-Eduardo Núnez: Purse Bid Postponed For IBF Mandatory Title Fight

Anthony Cacace will have a little more time to work out a deal with his mandatory challenger.

The Ring has confirmed that the IBF has postponed a purse bid hearing for Cacace’s ordered mandatory title defense versus Eduardo Núnez. The session was due to take place on Tuesday via Zoom conducted from sanctioning body headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey.

IBF spokesperson confirmed to all registered promoters that a rescheduled date was forthcoming.

Weirdly, the delay comes after Núnez’s team requested an immediate purse bid shortly after the IBF ordered the negotiation period. Cacace was summoned to begin talks with Núnez just five days after he dethroned Joe Cordina. The Belfast native won the title via eighth-round knockout on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

Cacace (22-1, 8 knockouts), The Ring’s No. 5-rated junior lightweight, delivered a career-best performance on his biggest stage to date. The bout took place on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undercard. Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) entered the fight on the hook to honor the mandatory defense with a win. That obligation has now transferred to Cacace, who has won seven in a row.

Núnez (27-1, 27 KOs) stormed into the number-one slot with an eleventh-round knockout of former titlist Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov. Their Feburary 16 title eliminator saw Núnez hit the road to wear down and stop Rakhimov (17-2-1, 14 KOs) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

The fight marked the first time that Núnez was extended beyond the tenth round. He didn’t need much longer than that, however, to close the show. The win extended his current seventeen-fight win and knockout streak.

Cacace and Núnez are obligated to remain committed to the fight.

Per IBF rules, failure by any titlist to honor a mandatory defense will result in their being stripped of the title. Similarly, challengers who abandon the process will be ineligible to participate in any IBF-sanctioned bout for at least six months. Furthermore, such failure by a challenger will also result in a demotion outside the IBF’s top ten.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JakeNDaBox