Shortly after it was reported that John Molina Jr. withdrew from a fight against Sergey Lipinets, a replacement opponent was set for him.
Lipinets will now face Jayar Inson on July 20 as part of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurman pay-per-view card in Las Vegas. Molina withdrew from the fight after suffering a back injury during fight week.
After losing his IBF junior welterweight title to Mikey Garcia in his first title defense back in March 2018, Lipinets decided to move up to welterweight. At 147 pounds, Lipinets has quickly risen through the governing bodies’ rankings with wins over Erick Bone last August and Lamont Peterson in March. Lipinets stopped Peterson in the 10th round of their fight and Peterson announced his retirement immediately afterwards. Lipinets is ranked in the top five by the WBC, WBO and IBF at welterweight entering the fight against Inson.
The 28-year-old Inson sports an 18-2 record in the pro ranks and it will be his second fight of 2019. Back in January, Inson fought on the undercard of Pacquiao’s win against Adrien Broner, also in Las Vegas, and lost a split decision to Jonathan Steele, ending a five-fight win streak. Inson’s only other loss was in 2017 against former IBO titleholder Thulani Mbenge by unanimous decision.
The rest of the main card will go on as planned. In the opening bout, former bantamweight world champions Luis Nery and Juan Carlos Payano will face each other. Also featured on the main card are Omar Figueroa and Yordenis Ugas fighting in a WBC welterweight title eliminator. Fightful will have live coverage of the entire event, including the FOX-televised prelim card that will feature Caleb Plant vs. Mike Lee for the IBF super middleweight title.
