According to sources close to the situation, representatives of both Filip Verlinden and Ibrahim El Boustati who, recently became Enfusion‘s first male two weight champion, met yesterday to begin negotiations for their highly anticipated rematch.
The first fight between El Boustati and Verlinden ended in a controversial decision win for “The Beast” at Enfusion Live 41 which, was later overturned by Belgium officials a month later, and in bizarre circumstances, the victory was awarded to Verlinden instead.
This shocking appeal was not recognised by Enfusion who, along with their middleweight and light-heavyweight champion, refused to acknowledge any such change of results.
At the time, El Boustati alleged that no official documents about Verlinden’s appeal were available from the officials when he’d requested them and that no due process was followed in an impartial manner either.
Also, El Boustati had made it clear that he would refuse to fight again in Belgium, alleging that the kickboxing authorities there were ‘corrupt’ and that he is the legitimate winner of the fight and remains undefeated in his professional kickboxing career (45-0).
However, it is believed that Verlinden’s team are allegedly concerned for their fighter’s safety if the rematch were to be hosted in the Netherlands and not in Belgium, due to levels of amniosity as a result of the fall out from the previous fight between both fighters.
MMA Plus will report again on the situation as more information becomes available in due course.
El Boustati was asked to comment about the possible rematch with Verlinden but instead responded that he is focused on his next fight in February against, Ulrik Bokeme (18-0).
