Six months after his first,
Angelo Leo's second IBF featherweight world title defence is confirmed.
The 31-year-old two-division champion (26-1, 12 KOs) will have a homecoming of his own come February 21, when facing IBF's No. 8-rated contender
Lerato Dlamini in Albuquerque, New Mexico at a venue to be announced.
Their world championship contest will top a ProBox TV show, per BoxingScene on Tuesday. The following month, they're planning a similarly high-profile show topped by unbeaten super-middleweight contender
Lester Martinez now an immediate
Christian Mbilli rematch will not be pursued.
Leo scored a 12-round majority decision win over former bantamweight beltholder
Tomoki Kameda (42-5, 23 KOs) in the challenger's hometown of Osaka, Japan on May 24 and in the absence of unification opportunities, gets his voluntary defence among home comforts.
South Africa's Dlamini (21-3, 12 KOs) won and later lost a 12-round split decision against Kameda in their two-fight series, which the 34-year-old parlayed into an unsuccessful world title attempt. Now, the decade-long pro has a chance to upset the apple cart in a busy division with contenders and champions on their own path.
Later this month on November 24,
Mikito Nakano (14-0, 13 KOs) faces Ra'eese Aleem (22-1, 12 KOs)
in a title eliminator to determine Leo's next mandatory challenger on the Tenshin Nasukawa-Takuma Inoue undercard.
WBO beltholder
Rafael Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs) will make his fourth title defence against Arnold Khegai on Friday, while WBC titleholder
Stephen Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) seeks to become a three-weight world champion
when facing O'Shaquie Foster on Dec. 6.
WBA champion
Nick Ball (23-0-1, 13 KOs) is expected to return in February,
with his trainer Paul Stevenson naming Leo as a potential unification option.