Lawrence Okolie and Kevin Lerena pay tribute to the #PurseBidHeads as their WBC bridgerweight title battle heads to a Sept. 20 listening to. Photograph credit score: WBC Boxing
The #PurseBidHeads should wait two extra weeks to search out out promotional rights for a title in boxing’s eighteenth division.
An Oct. 1 date has been put aside for the Lawrence Okolie-Kevin Lerena purse bid listening to. Okolie is because of make a compulsory protection of his WBC bridgerweight title. Nonetheless, the two-division titlist failed to achieve phrases with Lerena’s group throughout their second ordered spherical of negotiations.
The 2 sides reneged on a earlier settlement, which drew the scorn of the WBC. Sanctioning physique president Mauricio Sulaiman initially referred to as for a Sept. 20 deadline and listening to. A call was made to as an alternative maintain the session on a Tuesday, in the course of the WBC’s Martes de Café weekly assembly.
“The necessary title battle should return to a handbag bid,” Sulaiman beforehand confirmed. “The settlement initially made has fallen by means of.”
Per WBC guidelines, ten-percent of the very best accepted bid can be positioned in escrow as a win bonus. Okolie (20-1, 15 knockouts) will obtain the favorable finish of a 70-30 cut up from the remaining stability.
Okolie knocked out Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski in the primary spherical to win the title on Could 26 in Rzeszow. “The Massive Sauce” floored Rozanski (15-1, 14 KOs) 3 times to grab the WBC bridgerweight title.
With the win, Okolie grew to become a two-division titlist—for many who acknowledge the WBC-created weight class. The 2016 Nice Britain Olympian beforehand held the WBO cruiserweight title. That reign resulted in his first profession defeat when he dropped a call to Chris Billam-Smith final Could in Bournemouth, England.
South Africa’s Lerena (30-3, 14 KOs) enters the title battle on the heels of a loss. It got here at heavyweight, albeit in a reputable exhibiting. The 32-year-old southpaw was outpointed by unbeaten heavyweight Justis Huni on the March 8 Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It snapped a two-fight win streak after a third-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois. Lerena practically gained the secondary WBA heavyweight title after he dropped Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) 3 times within the opening spherical of their Dec. 2022 battle. Dubois rallied to drop him twice en path to the stoppage win and has since gained the IBF belt. He defends versus Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) this weekend in London.
Lerena beforehand held the IBO cruiserweight title. The belt is an enormous deal in South Africa however largely WGAF to the remainder of the world. The creation of the bridgerweight division was an ideal match for Lerena and others like him who’re too small for heavyweight. He outpointed Ryad Merhy of their WBC title eliminator final Could 13 in Kempton Park, South Africa.
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