By Steve Kim

While there have been some rumblings that Ryoto Murata, the WBA 'regular' middleweight champion, could be facing Jason Quigley in Las Vegas in October, the WBA has ordered a purse bid for Murata and mandatory challenger Rob Brant.

The purse bid is scheduled for Monday August 13th at the WBA offices in Panama. The minimum bid has been set for $200,000 with a 50-50 split between the two.

Murata captured this title after defeating Hassan N'Dam last October in their rematch. N'Dam won their first fight in May of 2017 in highly controversial fashion and as part of the WBA resolution, the rematch took place with Brant being promised his shot in due time.

Murata (14-1, 11 KO's) defeated Emanuele Blandamura in eight rounds back on April 15th in his last outing.

Last October, Brant (23-1, 16 KOs) suffered the firs defeat of his career when he took a risky by moving up to super middleweight to take part in the World Boxing Super Series tournament at 168.

He traveled to Germany and lost a twelve round decision to former world champion Juergen Braehmer in the quarter-finals of the competition.

He returned to the ring in March, back at 160-pounds, and knocked out Colby Courter in one round at the Grand Casino in Hinckley.

Quigley had averaged at least three to four fights a year, until 2017. In his ten round decision win over Glen Tapia in March of that year, he suffered a bad hand injury that kept him away from the ring for over a year.

He returned to the ring in March, and picked up a sixth round knockout over Daniel Rosario Cruz.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.