No, not again. We barely managed to escape.
Dan Rafael revealed today that Joshua Buatsi “failed[ed] to return [a] signed a deal” for his IBF final eliminator against Jean Pascal, which Lou DiBella outbid Eddie Hearn for the rights last month, before the mandatory deadline. As a result, no. 5 Pascal will now be ordered to meet no. 6 Michael Eifert for a crack in one of Artur Beterbiev’s belts.
Hearn is having an upset fight with Pascal (36-6-1, 20 KO) and Rafael in responses to that post, arguing that Pascal disagreed with the VADA tests while Pascal insists he filled out his forms and Rafael notes that he signed the IBF fight agreement that included testing. Personally, I think it’s Eddie throwing a tantrum because the fight would have landed on BT Sport. You’ll recall that Buatsi (16-0, 13 KOs) also turned down a European title fight with Callum Johnson after Frank Warren won the purse bid.
Buatsi apparently stated that he received an offer to fight Callum Smith, but Smith is already the WBC mandatory so I have my doubts.
As for Eifert (11-1, 4 KOs), he’s here because he won the IBF “intercontinental light heavyweight title” in July. Judging from his track record, he’s on Apinun Khongsong’s side of the IBF “contenders,” and Pascal should carry him with no problem.
Interestingly, as Jake Donovan points out elsewhere, Buatsi stretching things out instead of just giving them an immediate “no” worked in Pascal’s favor. The IBF rankings were updated on Monday and Joe Smith Jr was ahead of Eifert beforehand. Man, that would have been fun while it lasted.
