Belfast’s Caoimhin Agyarko’s world title bid against IBF light-middleweight champion Josh Kelly is confirmed to take place on Saturday, 25 July in Saudi Arabia.
The fight will take place on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s return to the ring against Kristian Prenga at the Jeddah Superdome.
As revealed by BBC Sport NI in May, Sunderland’s Kelly will make his first defence against Agyarko, having won the belt in January against Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Initially, Agyarko was scheduled to face Brandon Adams in a final eliminator in April, but the American collapsed prior to the weigh-in and was unable to fight, with the IBF then moving to order another final eliminator between Agyarko and Murtazaliev.
However, with Kelly given the option of a voluntary first defence, a deal was struck to face Agyarko which was made official on Monday.
“I was heartbroken at the time [when the Adams fight was cancelled] and didn’t know what was going to happen after, whether I was going to have to fight in another eliminator or get the title fight, or even be left on the sidelines again,” Agyarko told BBC Sport NI.
“I had just come off a 14-week camp, thousands of pounds spent away from my friends, my missus and family, so thankfully there’s been a silver lining and my manager [Paul Ready] worked out a deal to get this fight over the line.
“It was disappointing the IBF tried to order another final eliminator against Murtazaliev even though I’d done everything that was asked of me: turned up and was told 25 minutes before the weigh-in I wasn’t going to be fighting [against Adams].
“There was a silver lining everything works in mysterious ways. I truly believe what’s for me won’t pass me and that’s been shown.”
Agyarko’s last outing was a split-decision victory over Ishmael Davis at Belfast’s Windsor Park in December, while Kelly has put eight wins together including the title victory since his sole career loss to David Avanesyan in 2021.
Also confirmed for the bill is Hamzah Sheeraz’s first defence of the WBO super-middleweight title against Germany’s Simon Zachenhuber.
