Lawrence Okolie-Kevin Lerena Purse Bid Moved To Oct. 1 For WBC Bridgerweight Title Fight

The #PurseBidHeads will have to wait two more weeks to find out promotional rights for a title in boxing’s eighteenth division.

An Oct. 1 date has been set aside for the Lawrence Okolie-Kevin Lerena purse bid hearing. Okolie is due to make a mandatory defense of his WBC bridgerweight title. However, the two-division titlist failed to reach terms with Lerena’s team during their second ordered round of negotiations.

The two sides reneged on a previous agreement, which drew the scorn of the WBC. Sanctioning body president Mauricio Sulaiman originally called for a Sept. 20 deadline and hearing. A decision was made to instead hold the session on a Tuesday, during the WBC’s Martes de Café weekly meeting.

“The mandatory title fight must go back to a purse bid,” Sulaiman previously confirmed. “The agreement originally made has fallen through.”

Per WBC rules, ten-percent of the highest accepted bid will be placed in escrow as a win bonus. Okolie (20-1, 15 knockouts) will receive the favorable end of a 70-30 split from the remaining balance.

Okolie knocked out Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski in the first round to win the title on May 26 in Rzeszow. “The Big Sauce” floored Rozanski (15-1, 14 KOs) three times to snatch the WBC bridgerweight title.

With the win, Okolie became a two-division titlist—for those who recognize the WBC-created weight class. The 2016 Great Britain Olympian previously held the WBO cruiserweight title. That reign ended in his first career defeat when he dropped a decision to Chris Billam-Smith last May in Bournemouth, England.

South Africa’s Lerena (30-3, 14 KOs) enters the title fight on the heels of a loss. It came at heavyweight, albeit in a credible showing. The 32-year-old southpaw was outpointed by unbeaten heavyweight Justis Huni on the March 8 Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It snapped a two-fight win streak after a third-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois. Lerena nearly won the secondary WBA heavyweight title after he dropped Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs)  three times in the opening round of their Dec. 2022 battle. Dubois rallied to drop him twice en route to the stoppage win and has since won the IBF belt. He defends versus Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) this weekend in London.

Lerena previously held the IBO cruiserweight title. The belt is a big deal in South Africa but largely WGAF to the rest of the world. The creation of the bridgerweight division was a perfect fit for Lerena and others like him who are too small for heavyweight. He outpointed Ryad Merhy in their WBC title eliminator last May 13 in Kempton Park, South Africa.

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