Yvon Michel’s GYM Promotions won the purse bid to stage the WBC Light Heavyweight title fight between Adonis Stevenson and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, according to Dan Rafael.
The Purse bid did not run smoothly though.
There were three bidders: attorney Phil Weiss on behalf of Tom Brown’s TGB Promotions, which offered $3.102 million; Stevenson promoter Yvon Michel, who bid $2.101 million; and Gvozdyk promoter Top Rank, represented by vice president Carl Moretti, which bid $1.675 million for a fight in which Stevenson is entitled to 65 percent of the winning bid and Gvozdyk 35 percent.
The issue arose when seconds after the bids were unsealed and TGB Promotions was declared the winner, Weiss withdrew the winning bid.
At that point, Michel was declared the winner and told Top Rank he would put the fight on Nov. 3 in Quebec City. However, Top Rank was not happy with how things went down, nor was the WBC supervisor of the purse bid, Bob Yalen. He reported what had occurred to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who said the organization would rule on the situation by Thursday.
Top Rank believes Tom Brown and Michel were in cahoots on behalf of adviser Al Haymon.
“What happened was outrageous on Haymon’s part,” TOP Rank CEO Bob Arum told ESPN. “When Tom Brown wins and then he pulls his bid so Yvon gets it with the lower bid? That’s dirty pool. You win the purse bid and immediately say I’m passing? You can’t do that.”
Said Top Rank Vice-President Carl Moretti: “Yalen, who was supervising the purse bid, said, ‘You can’t do that.’ And then all hell breaks loose with everyone voicing an opinion. Yalen called Mauricio but they were not happy.
“The WBC said they would rule by Thursday on the outcome of the purse bid and I believe they will do the right thing.”
“I talked with Yvon and I told him we are prepared not only to go to Quebec City but to give him full and complete support in promoting the event because I think that’s a great fight and Quebec City is a lovely place,” Arum said. “I told him that if Showtime (which puts on most of Haymon’s major fights) doesn’t step up and do the fight we’ll talk to ESPN about doing the fight on one of our cards. But I talked to (Gvozdyk manager) Egis (Klimas) and we are not averse to fighting in Quebec City.”
“I learned only shortly before the bid Phil Weiss was there representing TGB,” Michel told ESPN. “I had never met him before the purse bid. I also had no idea how much he was going to bid.
“I spoke to Arum after and I was very happy and impressed by his cordiality, the collaboration he has offered, his personnel and his team’s participation, to make this event a huge success as the quality of the fight deserves. I am convinced the event has all the ingredients to be a blockbuster.”
“The WBC should make every promoter put up 10 percent of their purse bid and if they default then that money should go to the fighters in proportion to the purse split,” Arum said. “In this case, TGB should have had to put up $310,000 and then when they withdrew their bid that money goes to the fighters and they’re out of luck. They should make that a rule to prevent this s—. That said, Michel came up with a realistic bid and we’re all in.”
“We will wait until the official WBC ruling but since (Groupe Yvon Michel) has done nothing wrong, the promoters of the champion and the contender are ready to work in close collaboration,” Michel said. “Our bid has been logically calculated and is realistic in the current market so we should be allowed to proceed.”
