The planned IBF featherweight title bout in Atlanta Saturday night between champ Angelo Leo and Ra'eese Aleem was canceled Friday afternoon, when Aleem missed the 126 lb. limit. Leo will be paid in full, despite not fighting, due to Georgia boxing policy.
Ra’eese Aleem’s long-awaited shot at the IBF featherweight title collapsed Friday after the mandatory challenger failed to make the 126 lb. weight for his scheduled bout against champion Angelo Leo. Leo's camp decided against fighting him and it forced the cancellation of the DAZN main event for Salita Promotions in Atlanta.
Boxingscene's Lance Pugmire was the first to report on Aleem's bad weight miss.
Aleem, who entered the fight with a 23-1 record and 12 knockouts, came in nearly 3 lb. above the featherweight limit of 126, initially at Friday’s official weigh-in. Under Georgia athletic commission rules, fighters are given one hour to attempt to lose the excess weight. But, Despite the extra time, Aleem could only reduce to 128 pounds, still two over the limit.
Because the champion Leo successfully made weight, Georgia regulations entitle him to receive his full $147,000 purse even though the fight was canceled. Aleem’s co-promoters, MP Promotions and Salita Promotions, are now responsible for paying the full amount.
The matchup had been ordered by the IBF as a mandatory title defense for Leo, 26-1, 12 KOs. The bout proceeded to a purse bid, won by Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions, which kept Leo from getting significantly more of the purse.
“It’s unfortunate,” Leo's promoter who also owns BoxingScene, Garry Jonas said Friday. “We didn’t wish that on Ra’eese Aleem. He lost the opportunity to fight for the title on the scale and, unfortunately, it’s not in Angelo Leo’s best interest to fight him.
“We look forward to Angelo Leo being back on a Top Rank card in the near future.”
The Albuquerque native, who now trains in Las Vegas, could pursue either a tune-up defense or a unification showdown at featherweight at this point. He won the IBF belt with a dramatic, one punch knockout victory over Luis Alberto Lopez in August 2024. and has won six consecutive fights overall, since his lone defeat to Stephen Fulton in 2021. Leo had fought and won his first IBF defense in Japan last May beating contender Tomoki Kameda.
“I’m speechless. I’m sick for Angelo Leo, DAZN and my co-promoter, Dmitriy Salita,” Aleem advisor and MP Promotions executive Sean Gibbons said to Boxingscene Friday afternoon. “Aleem went to many places in the world to fight and never had a weight problem before today.”
Leo will now have the chance to defend the IBF against someone else. And, he could look for a unification bout against fellow WBO featherweight champions Rafael Espinoza or newly elevated WBC champ, Bruce “ShuShu” Carrington, who will be defending his title on July 4th in Cleveland.