VINCENT Astrolabio earned another huge break in his promising career as he’s scheduled to fight in a world title eliminator next month.
Astrolabio faces Russian veteran Nikolai Potapov in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight title eliminator as one of the featured fights of the Frank Martin vs. Michael Rivera fight on Dec. 17 at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The 25-year-old Astrolabio is coming off a huge upset win over former Olympic gold medalist and two-division world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last Feb. 26 in Dubai. Astrolabio dropped the aging but still crafty Rigondeaux in the eighth round and walked away with the close unanimous decision.
Astrolabio is a winner of his last five fights since losing to Zongli He by majority decision in 2018 in China.
The 32-year-old Potapov, on the other hand, is also riding a short streak of his own, winning his last three straight contests since a majority decision loss to Joshua Greer Jr. in 2019 in the United States. He bounced back with a disqualification win over Nasibu Ramadhani, followed it up with a unanimous decision victory over Oleksandr Hryshchuk and capped it off with a unanimous decision win over Oscar Duge.
Potapov has also fought the likes of former world champion Omar Narvaez, Stephon Young and Antonio Nieves.
Potapov is rated No. 3 by the IBF, with only ex-world titleholder Emmanuel Rodriguez ranked above him at No. 2 and No. 1 is vacant. Astrolabio is ranked No. 6 behind Jason Moloney at No. 4 and Melvin Lopez at No. 5.
Astrolabio is 17-3 with 12 knockouts, while Potapov is 23-2-1 with 11 knockouts.