Notebook: Herring-Stevenson is set despite WBO scheduling a purse bid

Pacquiao lawsuit mess; PBC on Fox changes; Quick hits

Despite the WBO on Monday scheduling a purse bid for the junior lightweight world title bout between Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson the fight is set and an auction to determine promotional rights will not be needed, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told Fight Freaks Unite.

The WBO sent Arum a letter to tell him it scheduled a purse bid for the mandatory fight between 130-pound world titleholder Herring and interim titlist Stevenson on Aug. 9 at the sanctioning body’s headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Top Rank promotes both boxers and Arum said even though the WBO issued the purse bid notice the fight is made.

“We let (the WBO) know (later Tuesday) that we’ve come to terms with both fighters,” Arum said. “It’s done. They didn’t know for sure and now they know. Over the weekend we made a deal.”

Had the fight gone to auction, the minimum bid was $150,000, although both fighters under their deals will make seven figures apiece, according to Arum.

Brian McIntyre, who manages and trains Herring, said they’ve been set on their side for awhile. James Prince, who manages Stevenson, told Fight Freaks Unite, “Everything is good on our end. Just waiting on the date.”

Although the date and site for the bout is not set, Arum said it is likely going to be Nov. 13 (and on an ESPN platform, as are all Top Rank cards). It could land in Atlanta.

Had there been a purse bid the split would have favored Stevenson, who would have received 63 percent to 37 percent for Herring, even though purse bid splits usually heavily favor the titleholder. However, the WBO sometimes uses a mathematical formula in which it takes the average of a fighter’s last three purses and compares it to the average of the last three purses of the other boxer to come up with the percentage split. Stevenson has made more than Herring in recent fights, the reason for the unusual split.

Herring (23-2, 11 KOs), 35, a Coram, New York, native, is coming off the most impressive victory of his career. He knocked out former two-division titlist Carl Frampton in the sixth round to retain his title for the third time on April 3 in Dubai.

Herring was able to fight Frampton because even though the mandatory defense against Stevenson was due, Stevenson agreed to step aside to allow it to happen as long as he got the next shot at the belt.

But former featherweight world titlist Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs), 24, who knows Herring and his team well, didn’t want to sit and wait for the fight, so Top Rank matched him with South Africa’s Jeremiah Nakathila for the vacant interim belt on June 12 in Las Vegas. Stevenson dropped Nakathila in the fourth round and won a shutout decision.

Pacquiao lawsuit mess

Paradigm Sports Management, the company that sued legendary eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao for breach of contract in late June, has filed a motion in California’s superior court in Orange County seeking a preliminary injunction that would bar Pacquiao from participating in a fight with unified welterweight world titlist Errol Spence Jr. scheduled to headline a PBC on Fox pay-per-view show on Aug. 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Also, Pacquiao filed a cross-complaint in the same court against Paradigm Sports in which he accused Paradigm of breach of conduct, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud, among other allegations. It’s a real mess. I obtained copies of the motion Paradigm filed and Pacquiao’s cross-complaint and wrote all about it in detail for World Boxing News. Please read the story here: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2021/07/31/manny-pacquiao-motion-paradigm-spence/?fbclid=IwAR2ySJ4VBAIX8v1fsgzo6SZH5wnEh705oyVfoxtxCIixQiT1VlyYZcSxvNI

Conlan-Doheny update

Michael Conlan and former junior featherweight titlist TJ Doheny, originally scheduled to meet in a 10-round junior featherweight fight, will now vie for the WBA’s vacant interim featherweight title in a 12-rounder contracted at 124 pounds on Friday at Falls Park in Conlan’s hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The fight and several undercard bouts, which are part of the annual Féile an Phobail festival in Belfast, will stream live in the United States on ESPN+ beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

A win for two-time Olympian Conlan (15-0, 8 KOs), 29, over fellow Irishman Doheny (22-2, 16 KOs), 34, a southpaw based in Australia, would be the biggest of his career.

“It’s an all-Irish fight, the biggest all-Irish fight in the last 40 years or so,” Conlan said. “What I’m really excited for is that TJ will have his own fan base, and I’ll have my massive fan base out here in Belfast. It will make a difference from my last fights (which was in a fanless bubble in April). I’m really excited. I’ve been putting the work in, and I know what I need to do.”

The ESPN+ stream will also include Scotland’s Lee McGregor (10-0, 8 KOs) defending his European bantamweight title for the first time against France’s Vincent Legrand (32-0, 17 KOs); Belfast junior welterweight Tyrone McKenna (21-2-1, 6 KOs) against Jose Felix (39-4-1, 30 KOs), of Mexico, in a 10-rounder; Irish welterweight prospect Paddy Donovan (6-0, 4 KOs) against an opponent to be determined in a six-rounder; and Belfast’s Padraig McCrory (11-0, 5 KOs) versus Russia’s Sergei Gorokhov (11-2-2, 7 KOs) in a 10-round super middleweight bout.

PBC on Fox changes

The 12-round welterweight fight between blue chip prospect Eimantas Stanionis and former welterweight world titlist Luis Collazo has been elevated from the co-feature to the main event position on the Premier Boxing Champions card on Saturday (Fox and Fox Deportes, 8 p.m. ET) at The Armory in Minneapolis, PBC announced on Monday.

Stanionis (13-0, 9 KOs), 26, a 2016 Lithuanian Olympian fighting out of Oxnard, California, notched his biggest win in April when he outpointed former world title challenger Thomas Dulorme. Collazo (39-8, 20 KOs), 40, of Brooklyn, New York, has said this will be the final fight of his 21-year career.

The original main event of Canada’s Cody Crowley (19-0, 9 KOs) against two-time Venezuelan Olympian Gabriel Maestre (3-0, 3 KOs) for the WBA’s vacant interim welterweight title was scrapped because Crowley is ill with Covid-19.

However, Maestre, 34, will still fight in the co-feature for the interim belt against a short-notice opponent in 6-foot-4 Mykal Fox (22-2, 5 KOs), 25, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander (27-6-1, 14 KOs), 34, of St. Louis, will return to the ring for the first time in 26 months and trying to end a two-fight skid when he faces Lucas Santamaria (11-2-1, 7 KOs), 23, of Garden Grove, California, in a 10-round welterweight fight that will open the broadcast.

Quick hits

Weights from New York for Triller Fight Club’s free card on FITE on Tuesday night from the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden: Michael Hunter 217.2 pounds, Mike Wilson 224.2; Chris Algieri 142.8, Mikkel LesPierre 144; Eric Walker 147, Ivan Golub 146.2; Joe Ward 175.2, Troy Williams 175.6; Aaron Aponte 139.8, Gerardo Gonzalez 138; Christina Cruz 111.2, Indeya Smith 111.6; Matthew Tinker 174.2, Michael Rycraft 173.2; Robert Sabbagh 220.2, Cleveland Billingsley III 251.2; Nikoloz Sekhniashvili 154.2, Guido Schramm 155.

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The return of Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia’s popular series of cards at the Paramount in Huntington on New York’s Long Island will return for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic (and have spectators) on Sept. 4. DeGuardia told Fight Freaks Unite it will be headlined by brawler Cletus Seldin (25-1, 21 KOs), 34, a popular draw on Long Island, against Fernando David Saucedo (63-9-3, 10 KOs), 40, of Argentina, in a 10-round junior welterweight bout.

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The WBO on Monday scheduled a purse bid for the fight between junior flyweight titlist Elwin Soto (19-1, 13 KOs), 24, of Mexico, and mandatory challenger Jonathan Gonzalez (24-3-1, 14 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Puerto Rico. It sent a letter to Soto promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Gonzalez promoter Tuto Zabala Jr. of All Star Boxing to let them know the purse bid will take place Aug. 9 at the WBO offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico unless they make a deal before then. Minimum bid is $80,000. If they don’t make a deal the split will be 75-25 in Soto’s favor if the fight is held in Mexico or a neutral site. If it takes place on Gonzalez’s turf the split is 80-20 in Soto’s favor.

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Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz announced that junior lightweight contender Jaime Arboleda (16-2, 13 KOs), of Panama, will face former featherweight world titlist Jonathan Victor Barros (43-7-1, 22 KOs), of Argentina, in a 10-rounder for a regional title on Aug. 19 at the El Panama Hotel in Panama City, Panama. It is slated to headline the first of six “Boxeo Calinete” events Lewkowicz is promoting along with Best Box and Paco Presents. The second installment of “Boxeo Caliente” is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Show and tell

Thomas Hearns was an all-time great fighter. He was one of the 1980s “Four Kings” along with rivals Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran, was in many huge and exciting fights, and was one of the most feared punchers of all time. He was also the first fighter in boxing history to win world titles in five weight classes, doing so at welterweight, junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight during his 29-year career. He won his first world title with a devastating one-punch knockout (a right hand, of course) of fellow Hall of Fame Pipino Cuevas in the second round to claim the WBA welterweight belt in front of a hometown crowd at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. That fight took place on Aug. 2, 1980 — 21 years ago on Monday. Here is a program from the fight in my collection. It’s a very tough program to find in any condition, but to find one in high grade is extremely difficult. I searched for one for probably 10 years. A few years ago I finally found this gorgeous one.  

Stevenson photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank