Ricardo Sandoval vs Galal Yafai joins Smith vs Puello

Unified flyweight champion Ricardo Sandoval will defend his titles against Galal Yafai as part of Matchroom’s June 6th Dalton Smith vs Alberto Puello show in Sheffield. Sandoval (27-2, 18 KO) is coming off the biggest win of his career, an upset split decision over multi-division titlist Kenshiro Teraji in July . The victory, his seventh since a controversial decision loss to David Jimenez, earned him the WBC and WBA belts.

Olympic gold medalist Yafai (9-0, 7 KO) has not fought since a vicious beatdown at the hands of Francisco Rodriguez Jr last June . “Chihuas” wound up failing a drug test, prompting the WBC to put Yafai back at the top of the queue and erasing the defeat from his record . Considering the damage he took, it’s a hell of a bold move to jump back in with a top operator.

As an aside, Rodriguez received a two-year ban from UKAD, but is apparently free to fight Angelino Cordova in another eliminator next month . Not sure if this is the WBC’s longstanding leniency towards Latino fighters who fail drug tests or just bog-standard corruption.