Lawrence Okolie-Kevin Lerena Purse Bid Moved to Oct. 1 for the WBC Bridgerweight Title Fight
Lawrence Okolie and Kevin Lerena honor the #PurseBidHeads as their WBC bridgerweight fight heads to court on September 20. Photo credit: WBC Boxing
#PurseBidHeads will have to wait another two weeks for the title promotion rights in the eighteenth division of boxing.
The date of October 1 has been set aside for the hearing of the Lawrence Okolie-Kevin Lerena fund bid request. Okolie is expected to defend his WBC bridgeweight title. However, a list of the two teams failed to reach talks with Lerena’s team during their second round of talks.
The two sides withdrew from the previous agreement, which drew ridicule from the WBC. Sentencing body president Mauricio Sulaiman initially called for a September 20 deadline for the hearing. It was decided to hold the meeting on Tuesday, WBC time Martes de Café weekly meeting.
“The mandatory title fight must go back to the bag,” confirmed Sulaiman earlier. “The agreement made at the beginning is over.”
According to WBC rules, ten percent of the highest bid received will be placed in escrow as a winning bonus. Okolie (20-1, 15 knockouts) will receive a favorable finish with a 70-30 split from the remaining balance.
Okolie knocked out Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski in the first round to win the title on May 26 in Rzeszow. “Big Sauce” knocked out Rozanski (15-1, 14 KOs) three times to capture the WBC bridgerweight title.
With the win, Okolie became a two-division list for those who recognize the weight class created by the WBC. The 2016 Great Britain Olympian previously held the WBO cruiserweight title. That reign ended in his first loss when he dropped a decision to Chris Billam-Smith last May in Bournemouth, England.
South African Lerena (30-3, 14 KOs) enters the title fight following a loss. It came from a heavyweight, although it is an honest show. The 32-year-old southpaw was knocked out by undefeated heavyweight Justis Huni on the March 8 Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Won two fights following a third round loss to Daniel Dubois. Lerena nearly won a second WBA heavyweight title after dropping Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) three times in the opening round of their December 2022 fight. He defends against Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) this weekend in London.
Lerena previously held the IBO cruiserweight title. The belt is a big thing in South Africa but especially WGAF around the world. The creation of the bridgerweight division deserves Lerena and others like him who are very young in the heavyweight division. He featured Ryad Merhy in their WBC title fight on May 13 in Kempton Park, South Africa.
