Last month, the World Boxing Organization officially ordered a light heavyweight contest between WBO world champion Sergey Kovalev and undefeated top challenger Anthony Yarde.

The sanctioning body gave both sides thirty days to negotiate and reach an agreement.

Because the two sides were unable to reach an agreement, the sanctioning body has now set a purse bid. The purse bid will be held at 11:00 a.m. EST on Monday, April 8th at the World Boxing Organization headquarters in San Juan, PR.

The minimum acceptable bid for the fight is $300,000.00.

Under the WBO rules, if the title fight between the champion and the mandatory challenger is held in the country of origin, residence or nationality of the champion, the champion shall receive 75% of the purse and the challenger shall receive the remaining 25%. In fight for the title held in any other country, the champion shall receive 80% of the purse and the challenger shall receive the remaining 20%.

Kovalev, a three time light heavyweight champion, regained the WBO strap in February after dominating Eleider Alvarez over twelve rounds for a unanimous decision. The contest was a rematch of their 2018 encounter, which saw Kovalev suffered a shocking knockout in the seventh round.

Yarde (18-0, 17 KOs) has been demolishing the competition, but he's yet to face a boxer on the level of Kovalev.

Yarde saw action last month and battered Travis Reeves over five rounds for a stoppage victory.

He's been able to stop every single opponent since his second pro fight in 2015. A contest with Kovalev would answer a lot of questions about Yarde, because the young talent has never fought beyond the seventh round, and there has been speculation on whether or not he is capable of fighting a tough pace in a twelve round bout.

Yarde's promoter Frank Warren has a very close working relationship with Bob Arum of Top Rank, who has several options on Kovalev. Warren and Arum co-promote heavyweight contender Tyson Fury.