Bob Arum’s company has regained control of the Josh Taylor-Apinun Khongsong promotion.

According to an ESPN.com story, Sampson Lewkowicz, Khongsong’s promoter, defaulted on the winning bid he submitted January 24 to promote the IBF-mandated match between Taylor, its junior welterweight champion, and Khongsong, its number one contender at 140 pounds. Lewkowicz submitted an unforeseen winning bid of $1,320,000 for the right to promote that fight, slightly more than the bid of $1,260,000 proposed by Arum’s company, Top Rank Inc.

Top Rank was declared the winner of the bid by the IBF on Saturday once Lewkowicz failed to put up 10 percent of the winning bid ($132,000) by midnight Friday.

Top Rank announced the signing of the unbeaten Taylor to a promotional contract last month. As per terms of that multi-fight agreement, the Scottish southpaw’s fights are supposed to be broadcast by ESPN, with which Top Rank has an exclusive content partnership.

Thailand’s Khongsong is unbeaten (16-0, 13 KOs), but the 23-year-old challenger is untested at the championship level and unknown outside of his homeland.

“We are not at all surprised that he defaulted,” Carl Moretti, Top Rank’s vice president of boxing operations, told ESPN.com in reference to Lewkowicz. “We are more surprised that he bid a ridiculous amount of money, considering the worth of the opponent. He didn’t have a broadcast partner or place to put the fight. He went in [to the bid] without either, and now he’s out $132,000. We always felt when we lost the bid we would end up doing this fight.”

According to the IBF’s rules, Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) is entitled to 65 percent of the winning purse bid ($819,000). Khongsong will be paid 35 percent from the winning bid ($441,000).

“You win some, lose some,” Lewkowicz told ESPN.com. “I had a deal made and it fell out, and I will never cry. I will not cry today like a baby when I lost yesterday like a man. I learn in life that sometimes you lose, sometimes you gain. It’s not the end of the world. I wish [Top Rank] good luck. I am ready to help however I can to make it a very successful fight. It’s a great fight and very competitive.”

Arum told BoxingScene.com last month that he would prefer placing Taylor’s first fight with Top Rank either in England or Scotland.

Since then, though, Jose Ramirez’s obligatory WBC title defense against Viktor Postol was postponed due to an outbreak of the coronavirus in China. Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs), of Avenal, California, was supposed to defend his WBC and WBO 140-pound championships against Ukraine’s Postol (31-2, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at Mission Hills Resort Haikou in Haikou, China.

That fight was postponed January 23 and could be rescheduled for some point in May in the United States. Moretti mentioned to ESPN.com the possibility of packaging the mandated Ramirez-Postol and Taylor-Khongsong bouts as an ESPN doubleheader in the U.S. because Top Rank intends to match Ramirez against Taylor in a 140-pound title unification fight later this year.

Taylor also owns the WBA super lightweight title, which he won when he beat previously undefeated Regis Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) by majority decision October 26 at O2 Arena in London.

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