Broner Seeks New Opponent For Feb. 25 BLK Prime Occasion; Redkach Out Due To Promotional Dispute

Adrien Broner will doubtless want a brand new opponent for his subsequent battle.

BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Ivan Redkach is not going to transfer ahead—towards his will—with plans to face the previous four-division champion. The 2 had been as a consequence of meet February 25 atop a BLK Prime Pay-Per-View occasion from Gateway Park Area within the School Park part of Atlanta, Georgia. 

Nevertheless, the venue was by no means formally confirmed regardless of talks for the previous week of a ticket announcement. Occasion handlers had been cryptic in explaining the small print to BoxingScene.com as to the delay however Redkach’s current social media outburst helped make clear the dilemma.

Particulars stay murky, although the guts of the matter is a enterprise disconnect between Redkach and promoter Joe DeGuardia. Redkach instructed BoxingScene.com that he was ready to battle totally free and has demanded his promotional launch from DeGuardia.

“Take $35,000 out of my purse or take all the things however launch me to battle,” Redkach demanded to DeGuardia in an e-mail alternate, with a screenshot of that portion shared with BoxingScene.com. “I want your reply proper now.”

DeGuardia has not publicly addressed the problem however has acknowledged that Redkach very a lot wished to face Broner (34-4-1, 24KOs).

Nevertheless, there’s concern {that a} deal was reached between BLK Prime—whose representatives weren’t out there for remark—and Redkach’s rapid crew with out DeGuardia’s involvement. Efforts to resolve that matter has led to a sequence of public outbursts by a clearly annoyed Redkach, who has not fought since April 2021 and can now have to take a seat out even longer.

“He is a grasping satan,” Redkach mentioned of his promoter. “He did not do something for this battle for me he wished to make all the cash on me. I gave him all the cash he nonetheless wished BLK to pay him extra.”

Redkach (23-6-1, 18KOs)—a Ukrainian southpaw combating out of Los Angeles—was to have returned to Atlanta for his second straight battle.

His final look got here beneath doubtful circumstances, shedding to Regis Prograis in what was dominated a technical determination on the time of their April 2021 conflict at Mercedes Benz Stadium, residence of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Redkach complained of a low blow, promoting it to the purpose of remaining on the canvas till being take out of the ring on a gurney.

The official verdict was modified to a technical knockout after a profitable enchantment by Prograis with the Georgia Athletic and Leisure Fee, primarily based on written guidelines {that a} fighter who can not proceed after being hit with an unintentional low blow “shall be declared the loser by a technical knockout.”

The defeat was the second in a row for Redkach (23-6-1, 18KOs), who beforehand dropped a twelve-round, unanimous determination to former two-division titlist Danny Garcia. Their January 2020 bout—which headlined a Showtime card from Barclays Heart in Brooklyn, New York—noticed Redkach initially get away with biting Garcia through the ninth-round of their welterweight battle, however later met with a suspension as handed down by the New York State Athletic Fee.

Redkach beforehand received three straight fights, together with a sixth-round knockout of former two-division titlist Devon Alexander in June 2019. Because it stands, the feat stays his final win to this point with uncertainty as to when—or if—he’ll battle once more.

“There are numerous imply folks in boxing who destroy the [lives] of boxers and break their goals,” famous Redkach. “It hurts me. I’m performed with boxing. I used to be loyal to boxing—when a boxer has his tied, he can not battle.”

For now, the February 25 BLK Prime occasion will transfer ahead although clearly with the necessity to fill the void on the prime of the invoice. The present additionally options an oft-rescheduled light-weight conflict between former titlists Mickey Bey and Tevin Farmer in a ten-round co-feature.

Bey (23-3-1, 11KOs) has not fought since a ten-round, break up determination defeat to then-unbeaten contender George Kambosos Jr. in December 2019 at Madison Sq. Backyard. Kambosos went on to win—and subsequently lose—the lineal and unified WBA/IBF/WBO light-weight championship. Bey—a 39-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio who now lives and trains in Las Vegas—beforehand held the IBF 135-pound title for ten months earlier than vacating in July 2015.

Farmer (30-5-1, 6KOs) has not fought since shedding his IBF junior light-weight to Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz in January 2020. The unanimous determination defeat ended his 17-month title reign which noticed the Philadelphia-bred southpaw efficiently defend 4 occasions all inside a busy eight month stretch.

Cincinnati’s Broner (34-4-1, 24KOs) final fought in February 2021, when he claimed a twelve-round, unanimous determination win over Jovanie Santiago in Uncasville, Connecticut. That bout was his first since a loss to Manny Pacquiao of their January 2019 secondary welterweight title battle, which bought roughly 400,000 items atop a Showtime Pay-Per-View telecast.

Ought to the February 25 present transfer ahead, it’ll mark the primary of a profitable three-fight deal between Broner and BLK Prime, which was formally introduced final October 25. The battle itself was beforehand within the works on each side of the pandemic, as soon as eyed for 2020 and once more searched for final January. Neither date materialized, with Broner as an alternative dealing with Puerto Rico’s Santiago, whom he outpointed over twelve rounds.

BLK Prime formally entered the boxing foray with its December 10 PPV occasion. Headlining the present, three-division and reigning WBO welterweight champ Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (39-0, 30KOs) scored a sixth-round knockout of David Avanesyan in entrance of a near-capacity crowd at CHI Well being Heart in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Broner, Redkach, Farmer and Bey had been all on website for the occasion to announce their very own bouts, which on the time had a floating February date and unconfirmed location.

Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox