By: Sean Crose
With Adrien Broner leaving Saturday’s scheduled match against Omar Figueroa, Sergey Lipinets, who was scheduled to fight in the lower division, was selected to replace Broner. “Former World Champion @unionamurai” Boxing screening tweeted, “step into battle @OmarFigueroaJr in the WBC 140-lb title elimination match this Saturday, August 20 on @ShowtimeBoxing after @AdrienBroner announced his withdrawal from the war due to personal matters. While the news of Broner’s emotional challenges is both serious and sad, Lipinets is grateful for the opportunity to appear in the Showtime card main event airing this weekend.
“That’s why you have to love the sport of boxing (sic),” Lipinets 16-2-1 announced on Twitter. “There is always an opportunity and I am only given one. Be ready. Fans will not be disappointed. Never say no to a fight in or out of the ring. And so, instead of facing Carlos Manuel Portillo 22-4 in the scheduled 8th round matchup as he had originally planned, the Lipinets will now battle 28-2-1 Figueroa in the 12th round. on an alternate schedule.
“We actually stayed in the camp for almost three months getting ready for whoever they put in front of me,” Lipinets said. “We trained without any particular opponent. There were a few other guys who said they wanted to fight me. So we researched and prepared for all kinds of styles. And now we have the great news that I will play Figueroa this Saturday. ”
Figueroa, too, is eager to take on her new opponent. “With the change of opponents, I was even more willing to take all the frustration and anger that had built up in camp and take it into the ring on Saturday and win,” he said.
