By Per Ake Persson

EBU cruiserweight champ Yves Ngabu will get hometown advantage for his mandatory defence against Dane Micki Nielsen - this became clear as the Belgian BFN Group won purse bids today in Rome.

BFN bid 50,000 Euro while Nielsen´s promoter Team Sauerland offered 30,305 Euro. Date and site is to be announced.

Ngabu, 19-0, last defended the title in January but since one mandatory challenger after the other have "disappeared" for one reason or another. 

First Noel Gevor (a/k/a Mikaelian), then Alexandru Jur entered the stage to be followed by Ryan Merhy and now Nielsen, who is 27-1.

The record looks good but Nielsen last fought in January and won a split decision over Ricards Bolotniks and failed to impress. His only loss came against Kevin Lerena.

IN OTHER NEWS:  Brandon Adams advanced to the semi-final round of The Contender on EPIX®.

Adams, 19-2 with 13 knockouts, won a five-round unanimous decision over highly-regarded Ievgen Khytov on the most recent episode that aired on Friday night.

In that bout, Adams dropped Khytov in round two with a left hook.  Adams continuously beat Khytrov to the punch, and did some of his work on the inside.  Adams went on to win by scores of 50-44 and 49-45 twice.

Adams will now face the winner of the John Thompson / Eric Walker bout in the semi-final round.

The original Contender series ran for four seasons (2005-2009) and launched multiple fighters into contention for world titles, including title winners Sergio Mora, Cornelius Bundrage, Sakio Bika, and Sam Soliman. 

Eric Van Wagenen serves as executive producer and showrunner of the revived franchise alongside Mark Burnett. The format is owned by MGM Television and Paramount Television.

EPIX is available nationwide through cable, satellite, telco and streaming TV providers including Charter Spectrum, Cox, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, Dish Network, Sling, PlayStation Vue and, as of June 13, Comcast.