Lou DiBella’s company secured the Joshua Buatsi vs Jean Pascal bout with a bid of $975,000, topping Eddie Hearn and Matchroom’s $875,000.
The fight, an IBF title eliminator, is expected to take place in the UK – as confirmed by Frank Warren, who tweeted DiBella once the purse bid results had been reported. The winner will emerge as the mandatory challenger to undefeated light heavyweight champion, Artur Beterbiev.
Delighted @loudibella has won the purse bid for Pascal v Buatsi. We will be working with Lou to stage this great fight in the UK. Details to follow.
PS – Hope you enjoyed the case of Furocity, Lou 😉 pic.twitter.com/VHKCqPbktg
— Frank Warren (@FrankWarren) August 30, 2022
Warren recently won his own purse bid – one that would see Buatsi face Callum Johnson for the vacant European light heavyweight belt. It was strongly assumed, and later confirmed, that Buatsi and team would bypass this opportunity in pursuit of world honours.
The British fighter, still undefeated, is coming off a decision win against Craig ‘Spider’ Richards. Since turning pro on the back of an Olympic Bronze medal, he has made it clear that a title shot is the aim, and he’ll be confident in this fight taking him a step closer to that.
Eddie Hearn, who promotes Buatsi, had previously campaigned for him to face WBA champion, Dmitry Bivol. Since this fight was ordered, Bivol’s next against Gilberto Ramírez has been announced.
Pascal, who is on a roll of three wins in three fights, was previously defeated by Bivol. At age 39, he’ll enter the fight with Buatsi the more experienced man, having held and challenged for the light heavyweight belts on various occasions.
The purse split falls at 60 / 40 in favour of Joshua Buatsi. The Brit is set to make $585,000 to Pascal’s $390,000. Buatsi is 3rd in the IBF rankings for his division, with Pascal’s name at 6th. In between the two are Anthony Yarde and Gilberto Ramirez, who both have other plans.
Details of the date, venue and broadcaster are expected to follow todays’ developments. The fight is another step towards clearing the bottleneck at the top of an extremely exciting weight class.