By: Sean Crose
With Adrien Broner having removed himself from Saturday’s scheduled bout with with Omar Figueroa, Sergey Lipinets, who was scheduled to fight on the undercard, has been chosen to take Broner’s place. “Former world champ @unionsamurai,” Showtime Boxing tweeted, “steps in to battle @OmarFigueroaJr in a WBC 140-lb title eliminator this Saturday 8/20 on @ShowtimeBoxing after @AdrienBroner announces his withdrawal from the fight due to personal issues.” Although the news of Broner’s emotional challenges is both serious and somber, Lipinets is grateful for the opportunity to appear in the main event of this weekend’s Showtime-aired card.
“That’s why u gotta love tge sport of Boxing (sic),” the 16-2-1 Lipinets stated on Twitter. “There is always an opportunity and I was just given one. Be ready. Fans won’t be disappointed. Never said no to a fight in or out of the ring.” And so, rather than square off against the 22-4 Carlos Manuel Portillo in a scheduled 8 round affair as he was originally supposed to, Lipinets will now be battling 28-2-1 Figueroa in a scheduled 12 rounder instead.
“We’ve actually been in camp for almost three months getting ready for whoever they put in front of me,” Lipinets stated. “We’ve been training with no particular opponent in mind. There have been a few different guys that have said they wanted to fight me. So, we’ve been sparring with and preparing for all types of styles. And now we get this great news that I get to fight Figueroa this Saturday.”
Figueroa, too, is eager to square off with his new opponent. “With the opponent change I’m even more ready to take all the frustrations and anger that have built up in camp and bring it into the ring on Saturday and come out victorious,” he said.