There’s a price tag attached to winning a purse bid and Sampson Lewkowicz was willing to pay it
Lewkowicz beat out Top Rank on Friday for the promotional rights to junior welterweight Josh Taylor’s mandatory title defense against Apinum Khongsong.
Lewkowicz, of Sampson Boxing, bid $1.32 million for the fight, $60,000 more than Top Rank’s $1.26-million offer during an auction at the International Boxing Federation offices in Springfield, New Jersey.
It was a surprise, mostly because Taylor’s mandatory defense of one of his two 140-pound titles will be his first fight under his new Top Rank contract, signed on Jan. 9.
“I believe that Taylor is a great champion, but I will not be surprised when Khongsong wins, just like I wasn’t surprised last week when [Jeison] Rosario won [by a fifth-round TKO of Julian Williams],’’ Lewkowicz, Khonsong’s co-promoter, told ESPN. “Nobody believes me, but I represent the best fighters on earth.”
Under terms of the purse bid, Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs), of Scotland, gets 65 percent, $858,000. Khongsong (16-0, 13 KOs), of Thailand, gets 35 percent, $462,000.
Lewkowicz said the that the fight will probably happen in the U.K. within a mandated 90 days.