Matchroom wins Lee Selby vs George Kambosos Jr purse bid

George Kambosos Jr’s gamble paid off.

Facing a potential pay cut from $150,000 to $100,000, Kambosos and his team declined to “restructure” the deal meant to pit him against Lee Selby in an October 3rd IBF lightweight final eliminator, leading the IBF to order a purse bid. Matchroom narrowly edged out DiBella Entertainment $277,777 to $260,000 today, and as the higher-ranked Kambosos is the beneficiary of a 60/40 split, he’ll receive $166,666.20 to Selby’s $111,110,80.

Whoever wins the fight, first ordered in December, will be one of many in line to challenge the winner of Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Teofimo Lopez on October 17th.

Kambosos (18-0, 10 KO), a training partner of Manny Pacquiao, notably defeated Mickey Bey last December in his biggest victory to date. He’ll have an inch of height but a one-inch reach disadvantage against Selby (28-2, 9 KO), who’s taken close decisions over Omar Douglas and Ricky Burns since a loss to Josh Warrington sent him from 126 pounds all the way to 135.

As Matchroom still has control of the bout, they could theoretically still stage it on October 3rd in Cardiff assuming Kambosos and Selby didn’t halt their training camps during negotiations. I’m sure we’ll learn more soon.