Segolene Lefebvre will enjoy hometown advantage in a bid to regain a title she never lost in the ring.

BoxingScene.com has learned that the respective teams for Lefebvre and reigning WBO junior featherweight titlist Debora Anahi Dionicius have reached a deal, thus avoiding a purse bid hearing for their ordered title fight. The two will meet on April 29 in Lefebvre’s hometown of Douai, France.

The fight was ordered on December 27, a few weeks after Lefebvre (16-0, 1KO) was stripped of the title for failure to defend due to medical reasons. The 29-year-old Frenchwoman suffered an injury last September which left her hospitalized and required surgery. Lefebvre’s manager, Mariana Caballero, notified the WBO of the development since it affected a planned title defense last October.

Sympathy was afforded the unbeaten boxer by the WBO but not much else beyond that. The sanctioning body cited Rule 19 in its by-laws (“Failure Of The Champion to Comply With The Terms Of A World Championship Contract Or The World Championship Rules”) as grounds to demote Lefebvre to mandatory challenger for the title she first claimed in a November 2021 win over Paulette Valenzuela in her Douai hometown.

One successful defense followed, a ten-round points win over Melania Sorroche last May 7 also in Douai. The subsequent injury would leave Lefebvre physically unable to defend for more than 180 days, prompting the sanctioning body to take action.

Dionicius (35-4, 6KOs) was the chief benefactor of the ruling.

The 34-year-old two-division titlist from Villaguay, Argentina—who is promoted by O.R. Promotions—claimed the vacant title in a ten-round decision victory over countrywoman Marcela Eliana Acuna (51-9-2, 20KOs) last December 23 in Resistencia, Argentina. The fight was her fourth of 2022 for Dionicius, all in a seven-month span beginning with a majority decision defeat to Brenda Karen Carabajal in their interim WBO featherweight title fight last May.

Dionicius will attempt the first defense of her title. The road trip to France will mark just her second career fight outside of Argentina; the lone other occasion came in a June 2015 win over Simona Galassi in the middle of six-year IBF junior bantamweight title defense from 2012 through a September 2018 defeat to Jorgelina Guanini.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox