Mary Spencer and Femke Hermans will meet in a rematch for the vacant IBF female junior middleweight title on October 11, The Ring has learned. The return bout will take place at the Montreal Casino in Montreal, Canada.

The two contenders met last December and Hermans, currently The Ring’s No. 4-rated junior middleweight, surprisingly befuddled and the big-punching Spencer out of her stride en route to claiming a dominant 10-round unanimous decision.

Since then, Spencer has changed her team and is eager to face the Belgium boxer again, while Hermans has fought and won twice. It is a crossroads fight that Spencer can ill-afford to lose.

Spencer (7-1, 5 knockouts), a three-time amateur world champion (2005, 2008 and 2010), a 2011 Pan-Am Games gold medalist and an eight-time national champion, turned professional in 2021.

Due to her vast amateur pedigree, she moved relatively quickly, scoring eye-catching, early stoppages against former world champion Chris Namus (TKO 1) and former title challenger Cynthia Lozano (TKO 1) but lost last time out to Hermans.

Hermans (16-4, 7 KOs) turned professional in 2016, winning her first seven fights before losing for the first time against Alicia Napolean (UD 10) in a WBA super middleweight title challenger. She rebounded to beat once-beaten Nikki Alder (UD 10) to claim the WBO super middleweight title in Germany.

The 33-year-old dropped to middleweight and lost to unified titleholder Claressa Shields (UD 10). That prompted a move back to 168 pounds, where she lost to IBF titlist Elin Cederoos (UD 10). She won the European middleweight title but looked to have seen better days when she was bludgeoned by WBO 160-pound boss Savannah Marshall (KO 3). She has since won four fights, including besting Spencer.

Erik Bazinyan (30-0, 21 KOs), The Ring’s No. 6-rated super middleweight, will fight against an as yet unknown opponent on the undercard of Hermans-Spencer II.

Meanwhile Eye of The Tiger Management’s impressive trio of prospects Mehmet Unal (4-0, 3 KOs), Wilkens Mathieu (3-0, 2 KOs) and Jhon Orobio (3-0, 3 KOs) will also all see action. The company’s newest recruit Moreno Fendero will also make his much-anticipated professional debut.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on

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