The opponent for Adrien Broner’s – who had been out of the sport for nearly two years – comeback fight was altered after BLK Prime recently made the announcement that Ivan Redkach would be removed from his fight with Broner and replaced with Henry “Hank” Lundy. Redkach and Broner were are set to face each other on February 25 in a non-title Welterweight bout at Gateway Center Arena in Georgia, USA.
“This fight with @AdrienBroner should happen against all odds we both want it ! there are people who do not want this I respect Adrian (Adrien) and BLK for all his merits.” Redkach cryptically put out on Twitter on January 16.
In a series of Tweets and a recent interview , Ivan Redkach (23-6-1, 18 KO’s) has fully explained the situation he is currently embroiled in that led to him being replaced from his bout with Adrien Broner (34-4-1, 24 KO’s), by Henry Lundy.
“Basically before I flew to Nebraska, of course the deal was done, but verbally, with my promoter.” Ivan Redkach said in an interview with The Spit Bucket while being interpreted by his wife. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be released to fly to Nebraska.” He added, alluding to his service to the Ukrainian military in their war against Russia.”
“He appeared at the press conference, and everyone thought the deal was done and we were just waiting for the bout agreement (confirmation) from BLK.” His wife, Anya Andreeva, further explained. “All of a sudden, Ivan’s promoter decided to be involved, like a hundred percent.”
“He said we had to negotiate the bout agreement, but we were surprised that we had to negotiate because the deal was actually done.” She continued, referring to Joe DeGuardia, the promoter referenced in her interview. “We basically just had to put it in writing.”
“So then he (DeGuardia) said that none of us were allowed to reach BLK, or even accept phone calls or text messages from them. And all of us include me, Ivan and Ivan’s advisor, Charles.”
“Finally, the bout agreement was received by Ivan’s promoter, and then he was just holding on to it. He didn’t return it to Ivan.” Andreeva said.
“On Saturday, we received the bout agreement from BLK, but it was a bout agreement from his (Redkach’s) promoter to Ivan, on the top of his promotional agreement, which is totally wrong because it was a simple task; you agree on the amount and percentage, and you have to release them to Ivan to fight.
“Instead, he sent ten pages about the agreement. Ten pages which say no words about BLK but the PPV. And the rest basically says that his promoter takes all rights out of Ivan.
“He (DeGuardia) even made a decision about the corner, his team – what they were going to wear, that Ivan has to get an approval only from him, and he will get like some type of sponsorship, which will also has to go through him (DeGuardio).
“He even demanded that in case Adrien Broner was overweight, Ivan would have to share 50% out of the penalties he could receive with his promoter.”
“The question is not about Ivan’s agreement with BLK Prime.” Andeeva clarified. “It’s about the agreement between Star Boxing (DeGuardia’s promotional company) and Joe DeGuardia’s deal with Ivan.”
“Star Boxing had nothing to do with Ivan’s fight. They don’t entertain nor promote that fight.
“So at this point, I decided to break the rules and reach BLK Prime to find out what exactly what was going on. The simple verbally-agreed upon terms and conditions all of a sudden turned to be very bad and absolutely unacceptable.” Andeeva said.
“Apparently, Joe sent a separate agreement to BLK. My understanding is that he (DeGuardia) wanted to be a co-promoter.”
Andeeva continued with driving home the point that the promoter was at fault for negotiating another deal without the knowledge of his clients.
“But it doesn’t matter who sent the agreement first or how long they were held. There was a bout agreement between BLK and Ivan. That’s it. And there shouldn’t be another agreement between Star Boxing, and Star Boxing and BLK. The only thing you have to do is to release to Ivan the exchange of the percentages.” Andeeva expressed angrily.
“But the percentages are another story, because apparently, every time Joe reached BLK, he never negotiated Ivan’s portion. He only negotiated his (own) portion.
“There was no word on Ivan’s purse. Instead, he tried to get more (for himself).
“The issue is that Joe never released Ivan, he never sent him a bout agreement from BLK. Instead, he created his own agreement, like he’s promoting this fight, and he took all the rights from Ivan.”
Andeeva made sure, however, to point out Redkach’s team didn’t hold BLK liable for any wrongdoing.
“They (BLK Prime) have always been in touch. I truly appreciate them because they put in all the effort to resolve any issue, to try to find a solution, and please Joe as much as they could. But they can not please him when the person agreed to take fifty percent out of Ivan’s purse.
“He (DeGuardia) didn’t want twenty-five percent out of Ivan’s purse, he wanted more. From BLK’s perspective, it is a violation.”
Andeeva went on to explain that Ivan reached out to Joe DeGuardia to try to convince him not to interfere with his deal with BLK and release/allow him to fight Adrien Broner. Redkach himself expressed immense disappointment in his fight with Broner being canceled.
“I kept hope, until today, that something would be changed, because apparently Joe’s supposed to send the BLK release today by noon, but he never did. When BLK reached out and notified me that I was no longer on the card against Adrien Broner, my hands were dropped.” Redkach said.
Based on the information we have received, it is apparent that Joe DeGuardia has been allegedly misconducted himself while attempting to do business with BLK Prime, as Redkach’s promoter. Ivan Redkach had already negotiated a verbal agreement, and DeGuardia was simply supposed to put the agreement on paper for Redkach to sign. Instead, he attempted to negotiate another agreement between his own promotion, Star Boxing, BLK Prime and Ivan Redkach, which would grant him 50% of Redkach’s purse.
In that sense, DeGuardia sought to legally disrupt Redkach’s flow of income by including himself into Redkach’s deal as a co-promoter. Additionally, DeGuardia forcibly locked Ivan Redkach and his team out of communicating with BLK Prime to cover his tracks, and stall for time for his agreement with BLK Prime to come through.
When Redkach’s team attempted to reach out to BLK Prime, it was revealed what DeGuardia was attempting to do with his side-deal, forcing BLK Prime into a position to replace Redkach as Broner’s opponent due to the legal ramifications of DeGuardia’s apparent misconduct as a promoter and businessman.
Adrien Broner is now still set to fight on February 25th, but Ivan Redkach will be embroiled in his dispute with DeGuardia for some time to come, leaving him unable to fight on February 25th due to potential legal and contractual obligations or consequences.
