By Per Ake Persson

French heavyweight Johann Duhaupas (32-2) has officially pulled out of the scheduled fight for the vacant EU title on October 10 in Barcelona against Hungarian Zsolt Bogdan (10-0) and thus misses out on a 5,000 Euro payday.

However, the reason he has done so is because Johann got a bigger fish in sight for a few dollars more. Jokes aside, Duhaupas will face Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33KOs) for the WBC heavyweight title on September 26th in the champion's backyard of Birmingham, Alabama. The fight will be televised on NBC as part of a Premier Boxing Champions card.

It will be Wilder's second defense of the title after stopping Eric Molina in nine rounds a few months ago. He captured the belt in January with a twelve round decision over Bermane Stiverne.

As for Bogdan he will fight the highest available challenger for the EU crown.