Marvin Rodriguez's MarvNation Promotions from California won a bid to organize a fight for the vacant WBC super lightweight title between Regis Prograis (27-1, 23 KOs) and Jose Cepedoy (35-2, 27 KOs). The winning bid was $2.4 million. The offer of other participants, TGB Promotions, Probellum and Zanfer Boxing, turned out to be significantly lower - in the region of $1 million.
TGB Promotions bid amounted to $1,260,000. Zanfer Boxing, the promoter of Cepeda, offered $1,004,500 and Probellum, the promoter of Prograis, offered $1,060,000. Top Rank, which for many years represented Cepeda in battles together with Zanfer, was present at the auction, but did not make offers.
According to the bidding rules, Cepeda and Prograis will equally split 90 percent of the winning bid, guaranteeing a payout of $1,080,000 for each fighter. The remaining ten percent of the winning bid, $240,000, will be placed in escrow as a winning bonus.
The fight must take place within the next 90 days. MarvNation has announced tentative plans to host the fight in either Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
In the auction, MarvNation was the only company with no past or present ties to any of the fighters, although it had previously partnered with Probellum on several shows in Costa Rica. MarvNation is not a major promotional company and boasts a stable of mostly prospects, although they have the undefeated Jocasta Valle under contract, who is now also being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. In MarvNation's eight-year history, winning Prograis Cepeda with a bid of $2.4 million is by far the most significant event.
Earlier, Jose Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) was supposed to fight Cepeda for the vacant title of the World Boxing Council, but the American boxer said that he would not be able to prepare for this fight in time due to the wedding planned for October. Now Ramirez will face the winner of the Prograis-Cepeda fight.
The WBC championship belt in this weight category was recently owned by Josh Taylor, who left it vacant by refusing to make a mandatory defense.
