The IBF has ordered a flyweight eliminator between former world champions and fellow countrymen Felix Alvarado (38-3, 33 KOs) and Cristofer Rosales (35-6, 21 KOs) of Nicaragua. The winner will be the #1 mandatory challenger to current unbeaten world champion Fernando Martinez (15-0, 8 KOs). Rosales ranked #3 and Alvarez #4 are the highest-ranked available contenders. Negotiations should be concluded by January 27 per the IBF.
The matchup has an interesting twist because of the history. Both fighters were longtime management stablemates under William Ramirez (WRAM Boxing). Alvarado remains happily with Ramirez where Rosales has since departed. Both won world titles under Ramirez’ guidance. Ramirez feels that this matchup is huge for Nicaraguan boxing fans.
“This is a great matchup. It was my great honor for me to have represented each one of them to world titles but it’s an even a better matchup for the Nicaraguan people. This is a fight that will have the whole country jumping. I’m sure they will look at it like “el clásico” (The classic) in soccer Real Madrid versus Barcelona,” said Ramirez.
Okay, the article says super flyweight, I THINK it means flyweight. Alvarado just moved up a few months ago.
Kind of mess in here, Sunny Edwards recently defeated Alvarado with no controversy, now Alvarado is about to face Rosales in order to get a mandatory for Edwards flyweight title. Fernando Martinez is the IBF 115 ruler and number one is Jade Bornea, there is no number 2, being number 3 and 4 Nakatani and Tanaka respectively, and that is the fight ordered IMO, Nakatani vs Tanaka, but who knows, we are used to have a mess in boxing at least once a month
They corrected the weight class Burucho, but they didn’t change the champion. Fernando Martinez is unrelated to this story, they just ordered him to purse bids with Bornea like you said and Nakatani is getting his mandatory enforced against Ioka, the WBO already ordered that as well.
This is Alvarado and Rosales eliminator for Sunny Edwards. I think Alvarado wins and if he does, that’s too bad because, like you said, Edwards beat him clean, but Edwards surely fights once before then and maybe even twice if he gets a unification opportunity. Flyweight is kind of a top-heavy division, the champs are good, but there’re only really maybe 6-7 interesting contenders. Looking through the IBF’s rankings, probably the most interesting fight for Edwards would be his #14, Yafai.