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British boxer set for shock world title fight in UK next month

Written by Tom Eaton on 6th April 2024.

ibo world title brit

Brit boxer Butler bound for shock shot at IBO bantamweight belt

Briton Paul Butler was thrown in at the deep end when asked to defend his WBO bantamweight title for the first time against arguable pound-for-pound number one, Naoya Inoue, but now the Liverpudlian has earnt the opportunity to attempt to become a three-time world champion in the division.

After domestic success at super-flyweight, Ellesmere Port’s Butler moved up to bantamweight in 2014 and successfully defeated Stuart Hall to become a world champion at 118lbs in just his second bout at the weight.

Astonishingly, eight years later, Butler would claim world honours again, outpointing Jonas Sultan to claim the WBO interim bantamweight title and later being upgraded to full champion to tee up an undisputed title showdown against the formidable Naoya Inoue.

As many expected, Butler was no match for ‘The Monster’ and was dominated throughout the contest, but to his credit he made it to the eleventh round when many anticipated he would be stopped early, albeit by fighting with minimal risk and showing little ambition to win the fight.

Since then, Butler has fought twice, winning by first and second-round knockouts against Jeison Cervantes (12-31-3) and Nabil Ahmed (2-25-2), and now finds himself challenging for the IBO bantamweight crown in five weeks’ time, facing Dominican Repubilcan Nolberto Jimenez (33-10-6), as confirmed by Butler’s gym.

“Paul Butler aims to become a 3 time World champion when he challenges Norbelto Jimenez for the @IBOBoxing Bantamweight World title. On Saturday May 11th in Ellesmere Port.”

Unlike Brit Butler, Jimenez is yet to become a world champion but it is fitting that he will have that opportunity in his 50th professional contest, after drawing to Kohei Kono and losing to Khalid Yafai in his two bids for the WBA super-flyweight title in 2014 and 2019 respectively.