The purse bid for the IBF heavyweight title eliminator between Kubrat Pulev and Dillian Whyte has a winner, but it's not a representative from either boxer.
According to ESPN, Epic Sports & Entertainment, who does promote either boxer, won the purse bid with an astonishing $1,500,111 bid which is significantly higher than what the other two bids were. Matchroom Boxing, which promotes Whyte, came in second with a bid of $831,111 while Team Sauerland, which promotes Pulev, only submitted a bid of $801,305.
Assuming the fight does happen with Epic Sports as the lead promoter, Pulev will get 75 percent of the winning bid, meaning he would receive $1,125,083.25 and Whyte would receive the remaining $375,027.75
Epic Sports & Entertainment is led by John Wirt, a former attorney for legendary promoter Don King.
Pulev was originally the mandatory challenger to the IBF title, currently held by Anthony Joshua, and was set to fight Joshua last October in Cardiff, Wales. Pulev had to withdraw from the fight after suffering an injury weeks before the fight and Pulev was replaced by Carlos Takam, who was stopped by Joshua in the 10th round of their bout. Pulev has not fought since the injury with his last fight taking place in April 2017.
Whyte, a former world heavyweight title challenger and the current WBC Silver heavyweight champion, was previously ordered to fight Luis Ortiz in a WBC heavyweight title eliminator. Whyte has not decided on which of the two world title eliminators to fight.
Epic Sports must return signed contracts for the bout to the IBF no later than June 8 and the fight must take place by August 24.
