A purse bid date has been assigned to the Rolando Romero-Ohara Davies clash.
WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza confirmed that the sanctioning body will hold a July 24 hearing to determine promotional rights for the mandatory 140-pound title fight.
As previously reported by BoxingScene.com, the bout was destined for a purse bid after the 30-day deadline came and went without a deal reached—or any progress at all made—for their ordered title fight. The hearing will be open to all WBA-registered promoters, who are required to submit a participation fee along with a minimum accepted $110,000 bid to be eligible. Romero is due 75 percent of the winning amount, with the remaining 25 percent to go to Davies as the mandatory challenger.
Romero is represented on paper by Mayweather Promotions, though TGB Promotions was the promoter of record for his May 13th ninth-round stoppage of Ismael Barroso to win the vacant WBA junior welterweight title. Davies is guided by Lee Eaton’s Let’s Go Management company.
Romero was originally due to face then-defending titleholder Alberto Puello (21-0, 10KO), who was forced out of the Showtime main event after he tested positive for the banned substance Clomiphene. Puello—who was issued a backdated six-month suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission on June 20—was replaced by Barroso, who dropped Romero in round three and led on all three scorecards through eight rounds.
The fateful round nine saw referee Tony Weeks credit Romero with a knockdown that was caused by a push and then stop the fight despite Barroso having not absorbed a single punch during the final exchange.
Because Romero was not a mandatory challenger and won a vacant title, he is now locked int to honor against the next leading contender to avoid being stripped of the belt.
Davies (25-2, 18KOs) was guaranteed the next shot at the WBA title currently in Romero’s possession. He earned the mandatory ranking with a ninth-round knockout of countryman Lewis Ritson in a March 4 title eliminator in Ritson’s hometown of Newcastle, England. The win was his seventh in a row since a twelve-round, unanimous decision defeat to countryman Jack Catterall who was unbeaten at the time of their October 2018 clash.
The lone other defeat suffered by Davies came in a seventh-round stoppage of Josh Taylor in their July 2017 battle of unbeaten prospects.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox