By Keith Idec

The IBF ordered a purse bid Monday for the Sergiy Derevyanchenko-Daniel Jacobs fight for its vacant middleweight title.

Lou DiBella, Derevyanchenko’s promoter, asked the IBF to call for the purse bid because he hasn’t made progress on a deal with Eddie Hearn, Jacobs’ promoter. If DiBella and Hearn can come to an agreement before the purse bid, scheduled for July 5 at the IBF’s headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey, it’ll be canceled.

The IBF ordered a bout between Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs), who’s ranked No. 1 by the IBF, and the third-rated Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) on June 11.

Brooklyn’s Jacobs and Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko are trained by the same man, Andre Rozier. Keith Connolly, who manages Derevyanchenko and Jacobs, told BoxingScene.com recently that they’re still willing to fight for the IBF’s 160-pound title (https://www.boxingscene.com/manager-if-not-canelo-jacobs-fight-derevyanchenko-next--128907).

Jacobs and Derevyanchenko spar against one another often.

They’ll fight for the title the IBF surprisingly stripped from Gennady Golovkin on June 6. The IBF stripped Golovkin of its middleweight title for failing to adhere to terms to an exception the IBF granted Golovkin to fight Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 in Carson, California.

Derevyanchenko was the mandatory challenger for Golovkin’s IBF 160-pound championship. Golovkin requested another exception to delay that bout during an IBF hearing last month, but the IBF took Golovkin’s title from him for failing to adhere to the stipulations of the exception it granted him to fight Martirosyan.

Kazakhstan’s Golovkin fought Martirosyan, who lost by second-round knockout, on short notice because Canelo Alvarez’s six-month suspension for failing two performance-enhancing drug tests forced him to withdraw April 3 from his rematch against Golovkin. That pay-per-view fight had been scheduled for May 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

According to the IBF’s agreement with Golovkin, Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter, was supposed to begin negotiations with DiBella on May 7. They were supposed to schedule a Golovkin-Derevyanchenko bout within 90 days of May 5, by August 3.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.