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Here comes the trickle down effect. In light of Andre Ward’s recently announced retirement, his world title belts are officially up for grabs. Light heavyweights Artur Beterbiev and Enrico Koelling were scheduled to face-off in an IBF eliminator match on Nov. 11 to become Ward’s mandatory challenger, but with Ward out of the picture that fight has just been elevated to a vacant world title fight.
The IBF sent a letter confirming the change in the fight’s status to Top Rank’s Carl Moretti, as Top Rank is promoting the card on an ESPN tripleheader.
"This is to notify you that IBF light heavyweight champion Andre Ward has retired. Now that the title is vacant, the IBF will approve the Artur Beterbiev vs. Enrico Koelling eliminator as a fight for the vacant title," the IBF wrote.
The Nov. 11 card will also feature Jessie Magdaleno making his first junior featherweight title defense against Cesar Juarez, and Jose Ramirez taking on Mike Reed in a junior welterweight bout.