BOXING
Leo-Aleem showdown set for May 9
IBF featherweight title fight to take place in Atlanta
It comes as no surprise that Albuquerque native Angelo Leo will defend his International Boxing Federation featherweight title against top contender Ra’eese Aleem on May 9, as was announced on Tuesday. Leo had been teasing a May showdown for weeks.
What’s surprising, at least mildly so, is that the site of the bout is not Aleem’s home state of Michigan, as had been tentatively announced, and that the promoter of record is not Manny Pacquiao.
Instead, Leo-Aleem is scheduled for Atlanta’s Gateway Center Arena. The listed promoter is Dmitriy Salita. He’s partnering with Manny Pacquiao Promotions, which last month won a purse bid and the right to stage the bout.
“This is exactly what boxing needs,” Salita, a former welterweight contender who’s been promoting since 2010, was quoted as saying on the website boxingscene.com. “Meaningful fights between two elite competitors with everything on the line.”
Leo (26-1, 12 KOs), who lives and trains in Las Vegas, Nevada, won the IBF title on Aug. 10, 2024 with a sensational 10th-round knockout of then-champion Luis Alberto Lopez at Tingley Coliseum on a card promoted by Top Rank, Inc.
Leo defended the title last May 24 with a victory by majority decision over Tomoki Kameda in the challenger’s hometown of Osaka, Japan.
Leo and Aleem (23-1, 12 KOs) are not strangers. They both live in Las Vegas, and Aleem twice has fought on cards headlined by Leo.
When Manny Pacquiao Promotions won the Leo-Aleem purse bid, MPP’s Sean Gibbons said the company fully intended to bring Aleem back to Michigan for the fight.
“It’s a great story,” Gibbons said, uttering words that could have been used to describe Leo’s situation before the Lopez fight. “Hometown kid goes to Las Vegas to chase his boxing dreams, and now come home for a world-title challenge.”
For whatever reason, perhaps because Aleem’s hometown of Muskegon is a city of some 37,000 on the western edge of the state some 200 miles from Detroit and may lack a suitable venue, Leo-Aleem is headed for Atlanta.
No other bout has been announced for the card, which is scheduled to be streamed on DAZN.
The story was first reported locally by boxingnewmexico.com.
