Raymond Muratalla will defend his IBF lightweight title against Robson Conceicao on August 1, joining the already-announced Lamont Roach Jr vs William Zepeda main event in Las Vegas, which will be for the vacant WBC lightweight title.
The 29-year-old Muratalla (24-0, 17 KO) surprised a fair few when he beat ex-Olympic king Andy Cruz to retain the IBF belt in January, having been elevated from interim title status due to the retirement of Vasiliy Lomachenko, who is now planning a return to the sport.
He’ll surely now go in as the favorite, but Conceicao (21-3-1, 10 KO) is never an easy opponent to beat. The 37-year-old Brazilian is coming up from 130 lbs, where he briefly held the WBC super featherweight title for about four months in 2024, and had previously proven a formidable challenge in world title bouts against Oscar Valdez (a controversial loss in 2021) and Emanuel Navarrete (a draw in 2023), as well as a clear loss to Shakur Stevenson in 2022.
2025 came and went without a world title fight for Conceicao, but now he has another one. His two most recent fights have been stay-busy affairs at home in Brazil, last fighting on April 4.
The event will air on TNT in the United States, as well as DAZN, and is now co-promoted by Top Rank, Golden Boy, and TGB Promotions, which is, essentially, Premier Boxing Champions. Nice to see all these promoters broken down into working together now that they’ve lost all of their own leverage!
