John Riel Casimero is coming off a win over Guillermo Rigondeaux last August. It certainly wasn’t the most exciting affair, but it marked his fifth straight title win, and he was hoping for a high profile bout next against either Nonito Donaire or Naoya Inoue.
Neither of those bouts against his fellow bantamweight champions materialized, and the WBO instead ordered a mandatory title defense against UK’s Paul Butler. To make things worse, neither of their promoters joined the purse bid. Upstart promotion Probellum went unopposed and has claimed the rights to the title bout with the bid of $105,000, which is just $5000 over the minimum.