Juan Francisco Estrada and Joshua Franco now have an official promoter for their ordered fight.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Golden Boy Promotions obtained the promotional rights to the Estrada-Franco WBA junior bantamweight title consolidation clash. Golden Boy submitted $120,000 as the lone bidder during the purse bid hearing held Tuesday via Zoom conference call, meeting the minimum standards for their bid to be honored.

Golden Boy—Franco’s career-long promoter—submitted potential fight dates of June 11th in Los Angeles and July 16 in either California or Nevada, with either date likely to air live on sports streaming platform DAZN.

The bid came after a one-day delay, as all involved parties were granted a 24-hour extension to reach terms for a title fight ordered more than two months ago. The extra time didn’t help, as the matter went to public auction on Tuesday and now with Estrada (42-3, 28KOs) due to defend his title on another promoter’s show for a surprisingly low payday.

The winning amount will be split 75/25 in favor of Estrada, who is guaranteed $90,000 as the WBA ‘Super’ champion.

Franco (18-1-2, 8KOs) is guaranteed the remaining 25 percent—$30,000, though it is believed that he will earn far more for his first shot at the full version of the WBA title.

San Antonio’s Franco was guaranteed a shot at the ‘Super’ title (along with Estrada’s lineal championship) dating back to his repeat win over Andrew Moloney last August 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The feat marked the second defense of the secondary WBA ‘World’ junior bantamweight title he claimed in a twelve-round win over Moloney in June 2020, with a bizarre No-Decision in November 2020 wedged in the middle of their trilogy.

Immediately after their third fight, the WBA announced that Franco was first in line to challenge a then-scheduled rubber match between Mexico’s Estrada and Nicaragua’s legendary former four-division champ Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (51-3, 41KOs). The ruling camo as the WBA was in the process of an aggressive—though forced—campaign to reduce its number of recognized titlists.

Estrada-Gonzalez III was initially due to take place last October 16, only for Gonzalez to test positive for Covid. Estrada tested positive for the infectious disease this past January, forcing him to withdraw from their rescheduled March 5 clash in San Diego. Gonzalez went on to face WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez (18-2, 14KOs; 2NC), whom he defeated via unanimous decision in a non-title junior bantamweight bout.

The delay was unfortunate enough for Estrada to both miss out on a trilogy clash with Gonzalez and leave himself subjected to a mandatory title defense. The WBA ordered the fight on February 9, with the March 11 deadline coming and going without a deal in place. Extra time was granted for the two sides— Estrada through Zanfer Boxing, while Franco is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and managed by Rick Mirigian—to come to terms, which seemed reasonable considering they are the two primary content providers to sports streaming service DAZN.

Nothing came of the month-long period from the deadline through Tuesday’s purse bid hearing.

Estrada inherited Franco as a mandatory challenger following his disputed, split decision win over Gonzalez last March 13 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The win—however widely criticized—avenged a loss to Gonzalez in a November 2012 junior flyweight title fight. Estrada went on to enjoy a unified title reign at flyweight and has served as lineal junior bantamweight champ since outpointing Sor Rungvisai in their April 2019 rematch, 14 months after dropping a tightly contested decision to the Thai southpaw.

Three successful defenses have since followed for Estrada, including the disputed win over Gonzalez in his most recent fight. Estrada accepted designation as WBC “Franchise” champion in exchange for making the physical belt available and now in the possession of Rodriguez. He still holds the WBA belt, and with it the commitment to next defend versus Franco to avoid being stripped of the crown.

Franco is unbeaten in his last eight starts, which has included two separate trilogies and three bouts that failed to produce a winner. A three-fight series with Oscar Negrete saw Franco go 1-0-2 over a ten month stretch before going on to face and knock out Jose Burgos in a January 2020 clash at Alamodome in his San Antonio hometown. He then moved on to the three-fight set with Moloney, always with the intention of next challenging the division’s elite fighters.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox