There is another new date for the IBF title eliminator featuring junior bantamweights Argi Cortes and Andrew Moloney.
Cortes-Moloney was originally scheduled for July 19 and then pushed back three weeks to August 9. Now there’s another postponement, this time by just one week, to a new date of August 16, still in the city of Durango, Mexico.
That’s according to a post on Moloney’s social media.
“The dates changed but the mission remains the same,” Moloney wrote.
Cortes, 27-4-2 (11 KOs), is a 30-year-old from Mexico City who is ranked third by the IBF (the top two spots are vacant). Two of those defeats came in his first four pro fights. The other two came against top-tier fighters in recent years: decision losses to Juan Francisco Estrada in 2022 and Junto Nakatani in 2023.
Since then, Cortes outpointed the 21-3-1 Victor Emmanuel Olivo in January 2024 and scored a ninth-round TKO over the 19-8-2 Salvador Juarez in August 2024, which means that Cortes is coming off a yearlong layoff.
Moloney, 27-4 (17 KOs), is a 34-year-old from Australia who is ranked fourth by the IBF.
Moloney briefly held the secondary WBA belt at 115lbs before losing it in his first fight with Joshua Franco in 2020. He would go 0-2 with one no contest in his trilogy with Franco. In 2023, Moloney was on the receiving end of one of the year’s most highlight-reel knockouts, downed by Nakatani in the 12th round. He has gone 2-1 since, outpointing the 13-1 Judy Flores in late 2023, dropping a split decision to Pedro Guevara in May 2024, and putting away the 47-6-2 Jakrawut Majungoen in three rounds last December.
The IBF titleholder at 115lbs is Willibaldo Garcia.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
