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Trevor Bryan and Daniel Dubois will have to wait another week to learn their heavyweight fate.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that a purse bid hearing to determine promotional rights for the secondary WBA heavyweight title fight has been postponed to March 21. The hearing was originally due to take place March 14 but was pushed back by one week after “different requirements from the champion Bryan’s team made it necessary to postpone it,” according to WBA Championship Committee chairman Cesar Chavez.
The WBA has set a minimum acceptable offer of $1,000,000 for the fight, with WBA-registered promoters also required to submit a $15,000 participation fee. The winning bid must come with a 10% deposit within 24 hours of the hearing, which will be conducted via Zoom.
The winning bid will be split 55/45 in favor of Bryan as the defending WBA ‘World’ heavyweight titlist.
Bryan—an unbeaten 32-year-old heavyweight from upstate New York who now lives and trains in Fort Lauderdale, Florida—won the belt last January in an eleventh-round knockout of faded, former WBC heavyweight titlist Bermane Stiverne. The fight was pieced together during fight week, with Stiverne a late replacement for Manuel Charr who was stripped of his title due to being unable to travel to the U.S. following an issue in securing a travel visa.
The two were due to meet this past January 29—one year to the day of their scheduled 2021 fight. The same issue forced Charr off the show, this time with enough notice to secure unbeaten though untested Jonathan Guidry as a replacement opponent. Bryan prevailed by unanimous decision in their spirited fight at W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio.
Dubois (17-1, 16KOs) was the number-one contender in waiting, ready to have his mandatory challenger status enforced. The 24-year-old Londoner was assigned the ranking last August as one of several WBA interim titlists who saw their belts removed from circulation. The development took place just days prior to his U.S. debut, a first-round knockout of Jose Cusumano in his most recent start last August 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.
The fight was Dubois’ second win following his lone career defeat, a tenth-round knockout to Joe Joyce. Dubois led on two of the three scorecards after nine rounds but was counted out after taking a knee due to excruciating pain from what was learned to be a fractured left eye socket which required surgery.
Per a previous WBA order, Bryan-Dubois must take place no later than July 28—180 days from the time of Bryan’s granted voluntary title defense versus Guidry.
The winner will hold a secondary version of the WBA “Super” heavyweight title currently in the possession of Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13KOs), who also owns the IBF/WBO/IBO belts. Usyk is likely to postpone his contractually-bound rematch with former two-time heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22KOs) due to having to bear arms in the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war.
The WBA should next up in the mandatory contender rotation system, which would leave the Bryan-Dubois winner in a good position.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox