Anthony Dirrell and Callum Smith will square off for a vacant super middleweight world title after promoter Tom Brown's TGB Promotions won a WBC purse bid Sunday morning in Brooklyn, New York.
TGB Promotions, which works with Dirrell and was represented by Brittany Brown, Tom Brown's daughter, bid $1.603 million. That offer easily surpassed the only other bid, which was $1.201 million, placed by Don Majeski, who was representing Smith promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.
Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs), a former world titleholder, and Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) will fight for the 168-pound belt that Badou Jack vacated to move up to light heavyweight in the days following his majority draw with James DeGale in their Jan. 14 unification fight. Dirrell lost the belt to Jack by majority decision in April 2015.
The boxers will split 90 percent of the winning bid, meaning each will earn $721,350. The remaining 10 percent -- $160,300 -- will go to the winner as a bonus.
There is no set date or location for the fight -- although it's a good bet to land on Showtime in the United States -- but WBC rules mandate that it should take place within 90 days, so by early June.
Dirrell, 32, of Flint, Michigan, won the title by unanimous decision from Sakio Bika in August 2014 in a rematch of their draw, and then lost it to Jack in his first defense. Since losing the title, Dirrell has won three fights in a row, most recently a sixth-round knockout of Norbert Nemesapati on Jan. 13.
The 26-year-old Smith, from England, has been in the mandatory position to fight for the belt since he knocked out Hadillah Mohoumadi in the first round of their April 2016 title elimination fight in which Smith also won the European title.
With the world title shot not coming Smith's way immediately, he has stayed active and won three more fights, most recently a brutal 10th-round knockout of Luke Blackledge in December.
Smith and Dirrell have boxed on the same card previously. When Dirrell won the title from Bika in 2014 on the Kell Brook-Shawn Porter undercard, Smith, 12-0 at the time, was also on the show. It was the only time he has fought in the United States, and he knocked out then-undefeated Abraham Hernandez in the first round.
With WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and so many others from the boxing industry gathered in Brooklyn for the Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia welterweight world title unification fight at the Barclays Center on Saturday night, the Dirrell-Smith purse bid was scheduled for Brooklyn rather than at WBC headquarters in Mexico City, where it would usually take place.
