Artur Beterbiev-Marcus Browne: Top Rank Wins Purse Bid With Offer Of $1,105,000

The Artur Beterbiev-Marcus Browne bout officially has a promoter of record.

Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. won a purse bid Tuesday to earn the right to promote their WBC light heavyweight title fight. The bidding process was conducted virtually by the WBC.

Top Rank’s winning bid was $1,105,000. The only other offer was made by TGB Promotions, which bid $1,000,001 on behalf of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.

The date of the Beterbiev-Browne battle will be determined soon by Top Rank, which co-promotes Beterbiev and has an exclusive content deal with ESPN.

The WBC’s 70-30 purse split will benefit Montreal’s Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs), who won the WBC 175-pound championship when he stopped previously undefeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the ninth round of their October 2019 title unification fight in Philadelphia.

Beterbiev’s purse will be $773,500. Staten Island’s Browne (24-1, 16 KOs) will earn $331,500.

Browne, 30, is the mandatory challenger for Beterbiev’s WBC light heavyweight title. The Russian-born Beterbiev also owns the IBF 175-pound crown.

Beterbiev, 36, most recently stopped Germany’s Adam Deines in the 10th round of their IBF-mandated match March 20 at Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow. Defeating Deines (20-2-1, 11 KOs) fulfilled Beterbiev’s mandatory duty with the IBF because visa issues prevented the IBF’s original obligatory challenger for Beterbiev’s title, China’s Meng Fanlong (16-0, 10 KOs), from traveling abroad to box Beterbiev.

Browne has fought only once since Jean Pascal upset him in August 2019.

The 2012 U.S. Olympian out-pointed journeyman Denis Grachev (20-14-1, 11 KOs) unanimously in a non-televised 10-rounder April 21 at Shrine Auditorium & Exposition Center in Los Angeles. Russia’s Grachev is 1-7 in his past eight fights.

In Browne’s previous appearance, Quebec’s Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) beat Browne by technical decision after eight rounds of a scheduled 12-round fight for Browne’s WBA interim light heavyweight title at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Browne couldn’t answer the bell for the ninth round that night due to a significant cut over his left eye, which was caused by an accidental clash of heads during the eighth round.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.