Don King wins purse bid for Kubrat Pulev-Michael Hunter

The Hall of Fame promoter submitted $1,100,000 during a WBA purse bid hearing held Wednesday. Pulev is due to defend his WBA “world” heavyweight title against Hunter on August 23 at a US location to be determined.

The date is in line with King’s birthday; he will turn 94 on August 20. A press release from Don King Productions’ office suggested that venues in Florida, Las Vegas, Ohio and Pennsylvania are in play for the ordered fight. The majority of King’s events in recent years have been held in South Florida – home to DKP headquarters – and Ohio, the promoter’s home state.

Per the terms of the bid, Bulgaria’s Pulev, 32-3 (14 KOs), will receive 75 percent ($825,000) of the bid as the defending titleholder. Hunter, 24-2-2 (17 KOs), is due the remaining 25 percent ($275,000) as Pulev’s mandatory challenger. 

In theory, the winner will face whoever prevails in the June 7 interim WBA title fight between Fabio Wardley, 18-0-1 (17 KOs), and Australia’s Justis Huni, 12-0 (7 KOs). Their title consolidation clash is required to take place by December 31. 

Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, 23-0 (14 KOs) – the recognized lineal champion – holds the primary version of the WBA heavyweight title, in addition to the WBC and WBO belts. Usyk, the undefeated pound-for-pound king, will meet IBF titlist Daniel Dubois, 22-2 (21 KOs), for the undisputed championship on July 19 at Wembley Stadium in London. 

The winner of Usyk-Dubois II will be unaffected by the abovementioned four-man box-off.

Pulev-Hunter was ordered on April 4, with a 30-day negotiation period assigned to the mandatory title fight. It came as part of a two-fight ruling that also granted sanctioning for Wardley – Pulev’s original mandatory – to instead fight for an interim title.

Wardley was approved at the time to face Jarrell Miller, 26-1-2 (22 KOs), who has since bowed out due a reported injury. Huni has replaced Miller, an American fringe contender, to face Wardley on June 7 in the latter’s hometown of Ipswich, London, UK.

Pulev, 44, claimed the secondary WBA belt in a 12-round decision win over Mahmoud Charr last December. The WBA ordered a Pulev-Wardley mandatory title fight in early March. However, Queensberry Promotions submitted a request to go the interim title fight given its already reserved fight date for Wardley.

The WBA responded in time with its official ruling to conditionally sanction Wardley-Huni (previously Wardley-Miller) and Pulev-Hunter.

Hunter is technically unbeaten in his past 14 starts under proper state or national commissions. That doesn’t include a loss to Artem Suslenkov last April 14 on an IBA-sanctioned card. Such bouts are not recognized by official record keepers given the lack of a national governing body overseeing the events.

Prior to that, Hunter’s lone career defeat came in an April 2017 unanimous decision to Usyk, the WBO cruiserweight titlist at the time.

Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.