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While one half of the WBA’s four-man heavyweight tournament has already endured an opponent change, the other side of the bracket has yet to get off the ground.
The Kubrat Pulev-Michael Hunter secondary WBA “World” heavyweight title fight is headed to a purse bid hearing. The sanctioning body has scheduled a session for May 27 to determine promotional rights for the ordered bout.
“After granting both camps a negotiation period that failed to produce a deal, the WBA has moved to the next step in the process,” WBA championship committee chairman Carlos Chavez informed all parties on Wednesday. “Formal notice was sent through official channels, outlining all terms and conditions of the purse bid procedure.
“Per WBA rules, the purse split has been set at 75% for the champion [Pulev] and 25% for the challenger [Hunter].”
Pulev-Hunter was ordered on April 4, with a 30-day negotiation period assigned to the mandatory title fight. It came as part of a two-fight ruling that also granted sanctioning for Fabio Wardley – Pulev’s original mandatory – to fight for an interim title.
Wardley was approved at the time to face Jarrell Miller, 26-1-2 (22 KOs), who has since bowed out due a reported injury. Justis Huni, 12-0 (7 KOs), has replaced the American fringe contender as the opponent for Wardley, 18-0-1 (17 KOs), on June 7 in the latter’s hometown of Ipswich, London.
Meanwhile, Pulev and Hunter have not made any progress in more than a month since the two were on the clock to reach terms.
It is the second straight failed negotiation period for the 44-year-old Pulev, who claimed the secondary WBA belt in a 12-round decision win over Mahmoud Charr last December.
Pulev and Wardley were ordered in early March to begin talks, but Queensberry Promotions submitted a request to go the interim title route given its fight date already reserved for Wardley.
The WBA responded in time with its official ruling to conditionally sanction Wardley-Huni (previously Wardley-Miller) and Pulev-Hunter. The winners are required to face each other before the end of the year.
The scheduled May 27 purse bid already puts Pulev-Hunter well off the timeline of the Wardley-Huni winner.
Hunter, 24-2-2 (17 KOs), is technically unbeaten in his past 14 starts under proper state or national commissions. It does not include a loss to Artem Suslenkov last April 14 on an IBA-sanctioned card. Such bouts are not recognized by official recordkeepers given the lack of a national governing body overseeing the events.
Previously, Hunter’s lone career defeat came in an April 2017 unanimous decision to Oleksandr Usyk, the WBO cruiserweight titlist at the time. Ukraine’s Usyk, 23-0 (14 KOs), went on to fully unify the 200lbs division and did the same at heavyweight last May, in his first of two wins over Tyson Fury.
Usyk remains the recognized lineal and unified WBA “Super,” IBF, WBO and Ring champion. The 38-year-old southpaw is unaffected by the abovementioned WBA resolution. Additionally, it is doubtful he will face the last man standing, assuming the four-man box-off goes the distance.