Stevenson vs Gvozdyk: Purse Bid Controversy?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Yvon Michel, promoter for WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, has reacted to the circulating stories regarding claims of "collusion" in the recent purse bid for the mandatory defense against undefeated Ukrainian Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

After the participant envelopes were deposited at a Manhattan hotel - where the WBC's purse was being stages - promoter Tom Brown, through his representative Phil Weiss, easily won with a bid of $3.102 million. For their part, Michel (GYM) and Carl Moretti (Gvozfyk's promoter Top Rank) had submitted bids of $2.10 million and $1.675 million.

However, less than a minute after the purse bid was concluded by WBC supervisor Bob Yalen, Weiss withdrew his offer, even though he had 10 days to do so. According to the rules of the WBC, the holder of the second highest bid wins the rights to the fight - which was Michel.

Brown's company was there on behalf of Al Haymon, who is Stevenson's manager.

There were immediate claims that Michel and Brown were working together to ensure Top Rank was not successful at the purse bid.

But Michel rejects those claims.

"I did not know he was going to be there and I didn't know about the offer he was going to make," said Michel to The Journal de Montreal.

"For my part, I went there to win. I was expecting Top Rank to put between $1.5 and $1.7 million in its envelope. So I needed $1.8 million to beat them. I decided to stretch my neck up to $2.10 million to be sure to win."

As for Brown's maneuver, Michel was a good sport.

"I know it sounds very bad. It's awkward, but not illegal according to WBC regulations," Michel said. "[Haymon] certainly believed that I did not have the funds to win the purse bid. I did my analysis and made my offer independently."

In the minutes after the announcement of the result, Top Rank's Bob Arum and Carl Moretti were furious. The of them wanted to appeal in order to restart the bidding process. A few hours later, Moretti and Arum had changed their tone.

Michel is planning to stage the card on November 3 in Quebec City.

In the meantime, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman will announce on Thursday whether or not he is going to provide his sanction to this fight. It would be surprising if he decided to call a second purse bid.

[Heretic]

Am I the only one who is surprised that the bids were that high?

Seems lot for Stevenson fight.

[keirw]

Michel may not have been in on it, but Haymon's people clearly performing a bit of the dark arts to ensure Stevenson gets home advantage.

[Deleted_Scenes]

Hard evidence may be lacking, but this is blatantly foul play.

All these shenanigans could easily be stopped if purse bids were fully open, auction style. Highest bidder wins, and any winning bidder who backs out/can't prove existence of funds gets fined 50% of their bid (enforced by legally binding contract, submitted on entry).

Under current blind bidding, anytime a winning bid is withdrawn, the purse bid should be declared void and restarted, with the previous winner excluded from the process, and all other purse bids under the same ABC for at least 6 months.

The whole thing is a joke.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hard evidence may be lacking, but this is blatantly foul play.

All these shenanigans could easily be stopped if purse bids were fully open, auction style. Highest bidder wins, and any winning bidder who backs out/can't prove existence of funds gets fined 50% of their bid (enforced by legally binding contract, submitted on entry).

Under current blind bidding, anytime a winning bid is withdrawn, the purse bid should be declared void and restarted, with the previous winner excluded from the process, and all other purse bids under the same ABC for at least 6 months.

The whole thing is a joke.

WBC may order bids again. But I doubt it. WBC like Haymon and Adonis.. plus it’s already in their book if the top bidder pulls out, the rights of the fight go to the next highest.

[jamamb]

lol in under a minute? not even trying to hide things

[Mexi-Box]

As I said, WBC's ties with Al Gaymon need to be investigated. Al Gaymon should be in jail.

[filibert]

It appears that WBC regulations will be changed to avoid this in the future. They currently allow this: If the bid winner doesn't pay 10% in the first 10 days, the second bidder gets it.

[Ruthless-RKO]

WBC upholds Stevenson-Gvozdyk purse bid

The sanctioning body still plans to punish TGB Promotions for its actions.

After looking into the situation surrounding the purse bid for Adonis Stevenson vs. Oleksandr Gvozdyk, which was won by promoter Yvon Michel after TGB Promotions pulled it’s winning bid, the WBC has decided to let Michel’s winning bid stand.

Top Rank had accused Michel and TGB of colluding together in order to win the rights to the fight for the lowest purse possible, but Michel denied that he participated in any such scheme. Ultimately the WBC decided it would allow Michel’s bid to stand but said they planned to impose some sort of punishment on TGB promotions for pulling their winning bid, but the particulars on that front have not been announced.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum backed the WBC’s decision, telling ESPN:

“We lobbied for that result because I think that was the only fair thing,” Arum said. “Carl believed Yvon was taken by surprise by the other bid and Yvon outbid us, so he’s entitled to do the fight.

“My view of the ruling is, I support it completely and I advocated for it. But I would like the WBC to tighten up the rules to the extent that they exact a punishment from somebody like Haymon or Brown who did what they did -- to put a bid in and then immediately withdraw it. I realize you can’t make the penalty retroactive but certainly going forward they can do something to prevent this from happening.”

With Michel as the confirmed purse bid winner, he plans to hold Stevenson-Gvozdyk on November 3 in Quebec City.

[Blodhemn]

So dirty. I respect the openness of it though. This is how all things boxing should be treated - keep that dirty laundry out in the open to dry. Probably less controversy in being openly crooked than to try and hide it.