By Jake Donovan
The middleweight title elimination bout between Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jack Culcay not only now has a home, but accomplishes two goals in the process.
Confirmed whispers from previous rumors circulating in Germany—where Culcay is based—have the aforementioned contest penciled in for April 13 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bout will serve as the televised co-feature to an already scheduled PBC show with local favorite Caleb Truax headlining in a 12-round super middleweight clash versus Peter Quillin.
Lou DiBella declined comment to BoxingScene.com, as have event handlers for the PBC show in line with standard company procedure for any card whose full details aren’t yet formally announced.
Rights to the bout were secured by DiBella, pulling off a bit of an upset in outbidding AGON Sports at the January 15 purse bid hearing at the International Boxing Federation (IBF) headquarters in New Jersey. The team at AGON, who signed Culcay in Oct. ’17, talked a good game in bringing the fight to Germany, but their surprisingly low bid fell roughly $30,000 short of DiBella’s $425,515 offer.
Upon winning the purse bid, DiBella indicated afterward that the bout would likely land on a springtime PBC show. That mission is now accomplished, along with the intention of having a mandatory challenger in place ahead of the titanic May 4 middleweight title unification clash between World middleweight champ Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (who also holds the WBA and WBC titles) and recently crowned IBF titlist Daniel Jacobs.
Derevyanchenko (12-1, 10KOs) came up just short in his vacant title fight versus sparring and managerial stablemate Jacobs last October, but remained near the top of the rankings as the two entered the bout as the IBF’s top two contenders. The loss bumped him down just below Culcay (25-3, 13KOs), who has won his last three starts upon moving up in weight after back-to-back losses at super welterweight.
In his most recent start last September, Culcay—who represented Germany in the 2008 Olympics—scored a 10th round knockout of Rafael Bejeran in an IBF regional title fight which was taken with the intention of next fighting in a title eliminator.
In making the happen, a promise was kept by AGON Sports, which was formed in October 2017 and added Culcay as one of its first boxing clients last February. The entirety of Culcay’s three-fight win streak has come while fighting under the AGON banner.
Derevyanchenko (12-1, 10KOs) has not fought since the aforementioned loss to Jacobs. A member of the 2008 Ukraine Olympic team, the squat middleweight relocated to Brooklyn prior to the start of his pro career, where he shares a head trainer with Jacobs in noted New York City coach Andre Rozier.
