Michael Farenas to fight Diego Magdaleno in IBF eliminator

The battle to get Filipino slugger Michael Farenas (39-4-4, 31) a shot at the IBF Super Featherweight title seems to be an on-going battle of politics at the moment.

Farenas, who beat Mark Davis recently, fought in an eliminator last time out. It later turned out that that eliminator only got Farenas the #2 ranking and didn't grant him an immediate shot at the world title. Instead he was told to fight the highest ranked available challenger, at the time that was Argentina's highly experienced Fernando David Saucedo (52-5-3, 8). It appeared that Farenas and Saucedo were going to fight for the #1 ranking until Saucedo got the call from the champion Rances Barthelmy (20-0-0-1, 12) effectively making it clear that Barthelemy didn't want anything to do with Farenas.

Having seen the Saucedo fight fall through Farenas's team were again told to secure a fight with the highest ranked available challenger. That has now lead to Farenas's team, lead by Gerry Penalosa, to open negotiations with once beaten American Diego Magdaleno (26-1, 10).

At the moment the teams are working towards making the fight. Penalosa would apparently like the fight to be held in Manila though common sense seems to dictate that the bout would be in the USA, unless Top Rank want to place the bout on the under-card of Manny Pacquiao's contest with Chris Algieri in Macau. 

Although we do like the sound of Farenas/Magdaleno we do need to wonder who at the IBF Farenas has offended to be forced to jump through so many hoops for his chance, especially considering the way Saucedo has gotten his chance. Hopefully Farenas will get his opportunity next year though we'd not be shocked if the IBF allowed Barthelemy another voluntary before than as well.