The WBA is looking to create an interim junior middleweight title with a previously-announced fight between Erislandy Lara and Ramon Alvarez set to take place next month.
The announcement came from the organization, which looks to create an impromptu four-man tournament of sorts to resolve its secondary 154-pound title situation in the aftermath of Brian Castano being stripped of the WBA “Regular” title. The fight between Lara and Alvarez will take place on August 31 and will be part of the televised portion of a PBC on FOX card.
When Castano’s belt was stripped after a fight against mandatory challenger Michel Soro fell through, the WBA initially ordered Soro to face Lara, who once held the WBA’s “Super” version of the title which is currently being held by Julian Williams, for the vacant belt. By the time the WBA order for Lara and Soro was made on June 24, Lara was already booked to fight Alvarez, ranked No. 9 by the sanctioning body at junior middleweight.
On June 25, Univent Promotions, the company that promotes Soro, requested the WBA to approve a potential fight for the vacant “Regular” title between Soro and Magomed Kurbanov. The Soro vs. Kurbanov fight is set to take place on July 20. The winner of the two title bouts will then have 120 days after August 31 to face each other for the WBA “Regular” junior middleweight belt.
Should that future fight fail to immediately create a fight deal and go to a purse bid, the “Regular” champion will receive 55 percent of the winning bid while the interim titleholder will receive the remaining 45 percent.
