Golden Boy wins purse bid for Martirosyan-Lara rematch

Golden Boy Promotions outbid rival Top Rank by a substantial margin on Friday to win the right to promote a rematch between their fighter Erislandy Lara and Top Rank's Vanes Martirosyan. Golden Boy bid $410,000 to Top Rank's $62,500, according to The RING.

Martirosyan and Lara fought to a dull technical draw in November, a fight that was promoted by Top Rank. Like the first bout, this will be a WBC junior middleweight title eliminator, with the winner in theory receiving a shot at Canelo Alvarez. Alvarez, however, looks to return on May 4, and then hopes to fight Floyd Mayweather in September.

Those worried about Top Rank not letting Martirosyan (32-0-1, 20 KO) take a fight on a Golden Boy show can probably forget that fear; the company doesn't seem to have much idea of what to do with Vanes, and he's in the WBC machine at the moment. It's about as good a spot as he's going to get, and if for any reason Top Rank did step in and screw this up, he'd have plenty of good reason to be upset. It's not like they've been getting him better fights.

Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO) was in a position something like that for the first fight, but Golden Boy -- also without much idea what to do with its fighter -- and was allowed to fight on a Top Rank-promoted event.

The WBC says that contracts are due by February 5, and then they have 90 days to make the fight.