THE IBF super-featherweight title is not available for Josh Warrington to win at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, but it remains a must-win for Anthony Cacace or he will lose the belt.
On Monday, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) clarified the situation after The Daily Star's Chris McKenna broke the story on Sunday.
Warrington, who has lost his last two fights and is competing at super-featherweight for the first time since 2012, is not approved as a challenger to Cacace as he is not ranked in the top 15 in the division by the IBF, so the Belfast man's IBO title will be the only belt officially on the line.
Although it is deemed a non-title fight by the IBF, should the Belfast man lose, the belt will become vacant and then contested by mandatory challenger, Eduardo 'Sugar' Nunez and the next ranked fighter - currently Japan's Masanori Rikishi.
A Cacace win will mean the West Belfast man must defend against Nunez in his next fight which must take place before March 20, 2025.
It was expected he would have Nunez in the opposite corner in his first outing after his title win over Joe Cordina in May, but an exemption was permitted with Nunez happy to step aside with he understanding he is next and the IBF have confirmed there will be no more exceptions permitted, even in the case of a potential unification.
Although this is officially a non-title bout, it is a defence in all but name for Cacace with Warrington the main loser in this instance, but what is also means is that the IBF's fight day rehydration rule that a fighter can't weight more than 10lbs than the contracted weight (130lbs in this case) is not in play, so Cacace and Warrington don't have to ensure they are no heavier than 140lbs on Saturday.
