The International Boxing Organization has reached a verbal sanctioning agreement to fill its light heavyweight championship, which was declaredvacant in May.
IBO President Ed Levine said the organization “has been engaged in final negotiations with a qualified and highly-respected fighter” in the division and anticipates a deal being finalized soon.
A fight to crown a new champion is planned for the fall.
“We very much appreciate the volume of inquiries we received during the process,” Levine said, “but we are not accepting further sanction requests at this time for this title.”
Due to the confidentiality of the negotiations, a further announcement naming the fighters will not be made until consummation of the agreement.
The IBO championship at 175 pounds has long been the signature title in the weight class, with former belt-holders like Roy Jones Jr., Antonio Tarver, Bernard Hopkins, Glen Johnson, Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal. Several of the division’s biggest fights over the last decade were sanctioned solely by the IBO, including Tarver-Johnson I and II, Tarver-Jones III, 
Hopkins-Tarver and Dawson-Johnson II.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
