The IBF is one step closer to naming a mandatory challenger to Daniel Jacobs' middleweight world title.
Promoter Lou DiBella won a purse bid for an IBF title eliminator between Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jack Culcay. According to ESPN, DiBella bid $425,515 to beat the only other offer of $397,713 made by Culcay's promoter Aegon Promotions.
As Culcay (No. 2) is ranked higher than Derevyanchenko (No. 3) in the IBF middleweight rankings, Culcay is entitled to 65 percent of the winning bid submitted by DiBella. This means that Culcay will receive $276,584.75 and Derevyanchenko will get the remaining $148,930.25. DiBella told ESPN the fight would take place in March or April and probably will be on a Premier Boxing Champions card.
Derevyanchenko, who had been the mandatory challenger for the title between 2017 and 2018, got his opportunity to fight Jacobs for the then-vacant title. The two fought in the main event of an HBO Boxing card from Madison Square Garden in October when Jacobs narrowly defeated Derevyanchenko by split decision to win the title.
Culcay snapped a two-fight losing streak by winning all three fights in 2018. Culcay emerged as a middleweight contender by winning the EBU European Union and IBF International middleweight titles this past June and September, respectively.
Since that win over Derevyanchenko, Jacobs became a free agent and is currently not signed to any promotional entity and does not have a fight lined up for him. Should Jacobs re-sign with Matchroom Boxing, Jacobs would almost surely fight on DAZN, giving the streaming service all four major middleweight titles as WBO champion Demetrius Andrade and WBA "Super" and WBC champion Canelo Alvarez are also on DAZN.
