After Ra’eese Aleem Missed Weight, Who Pays Angelo Leo?

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Featherweight titleholder Angelo Leo made weight for his scheduled Saturday night IBF title defense, but now that challenger Ra’eese Aleem has missed weight and the bout is being scrapped, the matter over who pays Leo is devolving into finger-pointing and tension.

Leo promoter and ProBoxTV/BoxingScene owner Garry Jonas says Leo is entitled to his full $147,000 purse, according to Georgia commission rules over matters such as this.

However, when BoxingScene contacted Sean Gibbons, Aleem’s advisor and an executive with Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions, he directed questions to co-promoter Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions.

When asked who is paying Leo, Salita told BoxingScene by text message, "We are working with Angelo Leo's team and his promoter to work out a resolution to this unfortunate situation that's fair to everyone."

"It's unfortunate what happened. I feel for both boxers, especially Angelo Leo, and for the fans, because this was a true 50/50 world championship fight that had all the ingredients to be a tremendous event. My company put a great deal of effort into bringing a major night of championship boxing to Atlanta, and while this particular fight did not move forward, the overall event still turned out to be a tremendous success."

Aleem first missed weight at 128.8lbs, then returned and was still over the 126lbs limit at 128lbs.

Gibbons noted Aleem has fought two of his past four bouts overseas, in Australia and Japan, but nine minutes before Friday’s weigh-in, Gibbons said he was alerted Aleem was overweight.

Jonas checked the Georgia rules and confirmed a fighter who makes weight is entitled to 100 per cent of his earnings in Georgia when their opponent misses weight.

Jonas said he learned a surety bond in place could be applied to pay Leo, but he has yet to learn how much that will cover.

The remainder of the card will still be streamed by DAZN, but it’s not clear if the network will be involved in covering Leo’s purse. A light heavyweight catchweight bout between Atif Oberlton and Carlos Gongora will replace Leo-Aleem as the main event.

In the meantime, Gibbons and Salita, who first spoke of taking the bout to Michigan, will have to resolve a matter that has caught them off-guard.

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.