The lightweight world title eliminator between Richard Commey (25-2, 22 KOs), 30, of Ghana, and Roman Andreev (20-0, 14 KOs), 31, of Russia, to produce the mandatory challenger for titlist Robert Easter Jr. (20-0, 14 KOs) is off.

Commey and Andreev were due to meet on Dec. 9 in Kemerovo, Russia after Commey promoter Lou DiBella and Andreev promoter Vlad Hrunov made a deal and avoided a purse bid.

However, Hrunov failed to put into escrow the $55,000 he had contractually agreed to pay DiBella as a provision of services for Commey’s participation in the bout by the Nov. 10 deadline they agreed to, so DiBella terminated the agreement after Hrunov failed to respond to inquiries as to where the money was.

Andreev will be dropped from his position and the IBF will soon order Commey to fight somebody else in the eliminator.