On Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Rafael revealed that Top Rank had won a purse bid for the Vitali Klitschko-Hasim Rahman fight for the WBC heavyweight title, which would be expected to take place sometime in mid-November. Todd duBoef, the president of the promotional company owned by stepfather Bob Arum, obviously expecting someone to bid $12 million, stepped in with a purse offer of $12,001,000. The closest bid turned out to be Don King’s $11 million.

On the surface, this looks to be a defeat for King, who was on a mission to gain complete control of the heavyweight division’s four “champions” (he already has promotional rights to the WBA’s John Ruiz, the IBF’s Chris Byrd and the WBO’s Lamon Brewster), and was able to cajole the WBC into declaring last weekend’s Rahman-Monte Barrett fight an “interim” title bout, citing Klitschko’s reticence to fight Rahman as a mandatory in his first bout coming off an injury.

However, even though I’m sure King would rather have won the purse bid, I’m wondering whether this isn’t just another instance where he’ll wind up being a beneficiary. After all, if Rahman wins, King will still have promotional rights to all four heavyweight champions. And if Klitschko wins, well, there was no indication he was going to sign with King anyway, and wasn’t solidly committed to the kind of heavyweight tournament King had envisioned.

Furthermore, Top Rank will be the entity assuming the risk on a show that isn’t necessarily guaranteed to make money, and likewise is not guaranteed to give them a new “property” when they come out the other end. At the same time, one can see why Top Rank would want to be involved. For one thing, it’s good from a “positioning” standpoint, as Arum demonstrates he does not disqualify himself from title fights in ANY weight division. Even if he doesn’t get options on Klitschko, he has him for this one fight and can take the opportunity to set up something for the future if the relationship is pleasurable. And yes, he can combine casino, sponsorship, foreign and pay-per-view revenue streams to make a profit, as there are few promoters as skillful.

Click here to take a look at Rafael’s story on the ESPN website.