WBC Orders Purse Bid For Jose Zepeda-Regis Prograis

The battle for the WBC’s vacant Super Lightweight title between contenders Jose Zepeda and Regis Prograis will go to a Tuesday purse bid. That’s according to a statement released by the organization on Monday afternoon.

The WBC’s website made their announcement that they parties haven’t reached an agreement on their own, so it will be a blind bid to determine who will promote the fight,

“The World Boxing Council advises that tomorrow, Tuesday, August 30, 2022, a purse bid will be held for the José Zepeda vs. Regis Prograis, for the vacant WBC super lightweight title.

Previously, the WBC had ordered the fight between Zepeda and former champion José Ramírez, but the latter will marry his girlfriend Marisol López in October, so he will not be available to fight.

Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs), 33, will get his second shot at the WBC title. He lost a close fight against Ramirez in 2019. Zepeda is on a five-fight winning streak, including a fifth-round knockout of former champion Ivan Baranchyk in one of the most extraordinary fights of 2020.

Prograis (27-1, 23 KOs), 33, reached the final of the World Series of Boxing tournament in April 2019, but lost a majority decision against Josh Taylor. In his most recent fight he knocked out Tyrone McKenna in the sixth round in March of this year.”

As our Dan Rafael wrote earlier this month,

“The WBC had ordered Prograis to face Jose Zepeda for the organization’s vacant 140-pound world title when former unified titlist Jose Ramirez withdrew from his position to face Zepeda for the belt.

With Ramirez promoter Top Rank and Zepeda promoter Zanfer Promotions failing to make a deal for the bout, a WBC purse bid to auction off the promotional rights was scheduled for Monday afternoon. However, that was canceled when Ramirez, who narrowly outpointed Zepeda by majority decision in a WBC title defense in February 2019, withdrew from consideration on Sunday. That paved the way for the next available WBC contender — Prograis — to fill the slot…

Ramirez would get the first shot at Zepeda-Prograis winner. His camp issued a statement then, explaining that Ramirez withdrew from consideration to fight Zepeda because of his fall wedding plans.

Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs), 29, of Avenal, California, and Zepeda were ordered to meet for the vacant WBC title in early July, but Ramirez waited until the eve of the purse bid to withdraw even though the wedding was being planned.

Taylor held two titles and Ramirez had the other two when they met for the undisputed championship in May 2021 in Las Vegas. Taylor scored two knockdowns that proved to be the difference in a 114-112 victory on all three scorecards.

Taylor defended the undisputed crown by highly controversial decision over Jack Catterall in February. Rather than make mandatory defenses of the WBA and WBC belts that were ordered, Taylor instead is pursuing a rematch with Catterall and those titles became vacant.

Zepeda is riding a five-fight winning streak, including a highlight-reel fifth-round knockout of former titlist Ivan Baranchyk in the unforgettable 2020 fight of the year in which they were each knocked down four times and there were knockdowns in every round. In his most recent fight, Zepeda crushed Josue Vargas in the first round in October.