After suffering his first loss to Mikey Garcia, Sergey Lipinets moved up to the welterweight division. His first opponent was Erick Bone on August 4, 2018, on PBC on FOX. Former world champion Sergey Lipinets (14-1, 10 KOs) as he earned a majority decision over Erick Bone (20-6, 8 KOs) after 10 rounds of welterweight action. "I always take a couple of rounds to figure the guy out, but once I loosened up I felt pretty good," said Lipinets. "I loaded up on my punches a little more than I had to, but this fight was exactly what I needed to get myself ready for another big challenge soon." Both fighters spent most of the bout exchanging single power punches, with Lipinets showing off his superior power to bust open Bone's nose in the early rounds and cause blood to pour from it throughout the rest of the fight. Lipinets continued to throw power punches to the end, connecting with a left hook midway through the final frame that caused Bone to jump back toward the ropes. One judge score