Navarrete-Magdaleno Purse Bid won by Top Rank

The World Boxing Organization (WBO) made official Tuesday that the purse bid for the 126 lb. Featherweight title was won by Top Rank via their Zoom meeting between Emanuel Navarrete and Jessie Magdaleno.

(A WBO title purse bid won by Top Rank? I can see some of you eye-rolling, I know.)

With the bid out of the way, the fight is slated to take place on October 17 or 24, on an ESPN platform from the MGM Grand Conference Center (“The Bubble”) in Las Vegas.

Per Section 13 (a), subsection 2 (B), and (C) of the WBO Championship Rules, either side gaining what is classified as hometown advantage for a vacant title fight would concede the greater amount of a 60/40 split to the visiting boxer.

What that means is that Navarrete—the champion at 122 lbs. before dropping the belt and moving up—would get the 60 percent end of the pie or $150,000 of the total purse amount. Magdanelo, the challenger,  would get the $100,000 purse for his crack first title fight in over two years.

Today, @WorldBoxingOrg held a Purse Bid via Zoom conference for the Vacant #WBO Featherweight Championship between Navarrete/Magdaleno. Top Rank was the only participant bidding a total of $250,000.00. Fight will take place October 17 or 24 @ The Bubble, Las Vegas, Nevada.

— Paco Valcárcel, Esq. (@PacoValcarcel) August 11, 2020

The contest for both for the vacant title that Shakur Stevenson left behind as he moved up to Super Featherweight.

Navarette (31-1,27 KOs) will be the heavy favorite of that contest going in as he comes off his latest outing, which was a six-round stoppage win against Uriel Lopez this past June at the TV Azteca Studios in Mexico City. While I saw that with my own four eyes along with the peak viewership of 327,000 the one-way traffic, the contest is ruled per Boxrec a no-contest by the Mexican government as there was no commission present for the card. Nevertheless, that contest would’ve marked his sixth straight win by stoppage and his first at 126 pounds.

Magdaleno (28-1, 18 KOs) will get a chance for the title as he was a former titleholder at 122 lbs. in his own right back in 2017 was last seen in action at this same “bubble” back in June as he won via a disqualification victory over Yenifel Vicente. Magdaleno held the title until he lost it via 11th round knockout to Issac Dogboe back in 2018. Dogboe to bring all of this full circle had a successful defense against Hidenori Otake before losing himself twice to Navarette.

Tuesday’s purse bid hearing now officially was the first to be thoroughly conducted via Zoom. Usually, these hearings to take place at WBO headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, or on-site of a major fight. The virtual session took place in place of participants traveling due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.