Top Rank won a purse bid on Friday in New York to promote unified bantamweight titleholder Fernando Montiel's mandatory defense against interim titlist Eric Morel.
Top Rank's Carl Moretti said the fight will be televised on "Top Rank Live" (Fox Sports in Espanol) and most likely take place July 17 in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.
"That is the most likely scenario," Moretti said. "It's not definite because the contracts have to be sent out, but that is the most likely scenario."
Although Morel promoter Peter Rivera and promoter Tuto Zabala Jr. of All-Star Boxing showed up at the purse bid, Top Rank turned out to be the lone bidder, offering $102,500 at the ceremony overseen by WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcárcel.
"I saw the other two guys at the purse bid and thought they might be bidding, but when it came time to hand in the $1,000 check to participate in the bid, and I was the only one who handed in a check, I sorta figured I would win the bid," Moretti said.
Montiel, 31, of Mexico, is entitled to 80 percent of the purse offer, meaning $82,000. Puerto Rico's Morel, 34, a former flyweight titlist, will receive 20 percent ($20,500).
Morel seems to have made a massive miscalculation. He had been offered $115,000 by Top Rank to face Nonito Donaire in Puerto Rico on July 10 on the Showtime card headlined by featherweight titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez's defense against Bernabe Concepcion.
Montiel (41-2-2, 31 KOs), who has also held titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight, unified 118-pound belts on April 30, when he scored a fourth-round knockout of Hozumi Hasegawa in Tokyo, a victory that propelled him to the top of the division.
Morel (42-2, 21 KOs), 34, has won seven in a row since resuming his career in early 2008 following a three-year layoff, most of which was spent in prison for sexual assault. Morel claimed a vacant interim belt in February when he won a split decision in Las Vegas against former junior bantamweight titlist Gerry Penalosa.
If Montiel-Morel takes place July 17, welterweight Alfonso Gomez, the former world title challenger and former "Contender" star, will face an opponent to be determined in the co-feature.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=5277582
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