Lightweights Lee Selby and George Kambosos Jr have agreed to meet in an IBF eliminator not long after receiving the order from the sanctioning body, and ESPN reports that the two are officially set to enter negotiations, with Jan. 11 as the date a deal must be done before a purse bid is ordered.
The 32-year-old Selby (28-2, 9 KO), a former featherweight titleholder, dropped his 126-pound belt to Josh Warrington in May 2018, then skipped over the 130-pound ranks to jump all the way up to lightweight. He beat Omar Douglas in February and Ricky Burns in October; neither was an easy win, but neither was a robbery or anything of the sort, either.
Kambosos (18-0, 10 KO) is an unbeaten, 26-year-old Australian who was just seen on the Crawford-Kavaliauskas card, outpointing veteran and former questionable titleholder Mickey Bey by split decision over 10 rounds. His competition has otherwise been very limited.
The IBF lightweight belt is currently held by Teofimo Lopez (15-0, 12 KO), who knocked out Richard Commey inside of two rounds on Dec. 14 to win the belt. The current plan is for Lopez, 22, to face WBA/WBO titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko, likely in April, but the IBF must go forward with finding a mandatory challenger all the same.