Alexander Povetkin camp wins purse bid for Deontay Wilder bout

The challenger came out on top yesterday as Andrey Ryabinsky, promoter of Alexander Povetkin, outbid Lou DiBella for the rights to Povetkin's upcoming clash with WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder. The Russian camp's $7.15 million bid defeated Dibella's by over $2 million.

As Dan Rafael points out in the link above, this is far from unheard of from Team Povetkin, who put up a staggering $23.33 million for "Sasha's" ill-fated 2013 bout with Wladimir Klitschko. Ryabinsky now has control of the date and location of the fight and will likely place it in his charge's native Russia. The fight must take place within the next ninety days, with a confirmed date and location by March 11th..

Wilder, as the champion, is entitled to 70% of the purse to Povetkin's 30%. The WBC, however, just announced a sort of "win bonus" for purse bids wherein the 70-30 distribution applies only to 90% of the purse and the remaining 10% goes entirely to the winner.

Despite losing the bid, DiBella is quite confident that "The Bronze Bomber" will take the fight rather than vacate his title.

"We're very happy to fight for 70 percent of 7.15 million on our side," DiBella told ESPN. "There was never any chance that Deontay was going to vacate his title. The fight is happening. If they put the fight in Russia, then I hope [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can personally attend so he can watch 'Sasha' get knocked out."

It looks like they're finally making progress; should this fight happen, 2016 could wind up as the best year of heavyweight boxing in ages. Feels good, don't it?