Leo retains title after challenger badly misses weight
Yes, Albuquerque native Angelo Leo is still the International Boxing Federation featherweight champion. But Leo’s retention of the title came about on Friday, not Saturday, and in a most peculiar and unsatisfying way. Challenger Ra’eese Aleem’s failure to make the 126-pound featherweight limit at Friday’s weigh-in has led to the cancellation of Leo’s Saturday IBF title defense in Atlanta.
Leo, who had the option of fighting Aleem with no title at stake, opted not to do so. As reported by boxingscene. com , Leo, having weighed in successfully at 125 pounds, is still entitled to his contracted pay, reported to be $147,000.
Aleem, who had called Saturday’s fight the greatest opportunity of his career, weighed in at 128. 8 pounds. Two hours later, given a second chance, he still weighed 128 pounds.
The fight was cancelled at that point. An attempt by the Journal to reach Leo for comment was unsuccessful. But Albuquerque’s Luis Chavez, Leo’s longtime co-trainer, said by phone from Atlanta that the champion was “very upset.
… We trained so hard for nothing. ” Leo, Chavez said, “Looked terrific (in training), and then this happened. ” Chavez said Leo had no wish to fight a non-title bout against an overweight opponent.