Winning Lubin-Holmes purse bid part of ProBox TV’s ambitious year

LAS VEGAS – ProBox TV’s push for prominence this year became a put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is proposition Tuesday, and CEO Garry Jonas did just that.

Jonas’ ProBox TV won the purse bid for the coming IBF junior middleweight title eliminator between longtime Jonas fighter and former title challenger Erickson Lubin of Florida and No. 7 ranked Ardreal Holmes of Flint, Michigan.

“We think it’s important to host the fight. Lubin is the No. 1 contender and we wanted to keep the fight,” Jonas told BoxingScene Tuesday after winning the bid at $225,000, while Holmes’ promoter Dmitry Salita bid $220,000 in his effort to take the bout to DAZN.

At this hour, Lubin-Holmes will either fall on Premier Boxing Champions’ March 22 Amazon Prime Video card headlined by 154-pound unified champion Sebastian Fundora at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas or it will lead a ProBox TV card on April 12 or April 19 in Orlando.

Jonas has ambitious plans for a robust year for ProBox TV, and the opportunity to reunite with Lubin – whom Jonas signed as an 18-year-old while working at Iron Mike [Tyson] Productions, then managed when Lubin moved to PBC – was too sweet to resist.

(Disclosure: Jonas also owns BoxingScene.)

“I’ve been in Lubin’s camp all the way. He was born to me, he’s like my child,” Jonas said.

Lubin, 26-2 (18 KOs), is coming off a pair of 2023 victories over Luis Arias and Jesus Ramos, which followed his 2022 stoppage loss to Fundora. In 2017, Lubin fought for the WBC 154-pound belt and was knocked out in the first round by eventual undisputed champion Jermell Charlo.

A southpaw like Lubin, Holmes, 17-0 (6 KOs), has been more active than Lubin, winning three fights in Michigan in 2024, most recently claiming a 10-round unanimous decision over Edwine Humaine Jnr on December 12.

The Lubin-Holmes winner will be first in line to face IBF 154-pound champion Bakhram Murtazaliev, who told BoxingScene Tuesday he’s back in the gym following his October title defense, a knockout of former champion Tim Tszyu.

Murtazaliev does not want to interrupt Ramadan with boxing responsibilities after doing so last year before winning the belt versus Jack Culcay in Germany.

“Lubin has worked his way back in there,” Jonas said. “So now, we want to keep him busy.”

It’s yet to be determined if PBC will take the fight or if ProBox TV will add it to its busy schedule, which includes a full turn to rich “Contender Series” cards February 8 in San Antonio (headlined by the WBA’s No. 2-ranked 122-pound contender Ramon Cardenas versus No. 10 Bryan Acosta), March 8 at the Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, March 22 at the National Orange Convention center in San Bernardino, California, Philadelphia on April 5, then to Washington on April 26.  

ProBox will stage its final Wednesday night “Future Stars” card Feb. 19 at the Chicken Ranch Casino in Sacramento, California.

After that, ProBox TV’s “future stars” will perform on the undercards of its “Contender Series” cards.   

“This is in line with our gradual ascent into high-level contender fights. That’s where we want to go this year,” Jonas said. “We keep inching it up. A $225k purse [for Lubin-Holmes] is not record-setting, but for little-ol’ ProBox TV, it’s a nice step up.”

BoxingScene learned that ProBox TV has additionally secured the rights to stage the WBA welterweight eliminator between Puerto Rico’s Nicklaus Flaz, 14-2 (9 KOs), and recent WBA title contender Gabriel Maestre, 6-1-1 (5 KOs).

If ProBox TV places Lubin-Holmes in Orlando in April (either at the Oceola Heritage Park or Caribe Royale resort), both fights will be on that card.

“It’s popping now. It’s going to be an aggressive year,” Jonas said.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.