Matchroom and Wasserman win Hrgovic-Zhang purse bid

ProBox submitted the only other bid

Today’s other purse bid for a final eliminator worked out a bit better for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, as their $650,000 joint offer with Wasserman defeated ProBox’s $410,000 bid to secure the rights to Filip Hrgovic vs. Zhang Zhilei.

The higher-ranked Hrgovic (11-0, 9 KO) will be the beneficiary of a 60/40 split. Neither Matchroom nor the Sauerlands have revealed a potential date or location yet.

Zhang (23-0-1, 18 KO) basically took the Steven Bradbury approach to getting this fight, waiting patiently while virtually every other member of the IBF top 15 declined due to injury, pre-existing contracts, or just straight-up not wanting to do it. As I said before, this is the most important fight of his career; he’s 38 and basically imploded against Jerry Forrest two fights back. The only way to a title is through Hrgovic, though it’ll probably still be a while due to the absolute logjam at the top.