Janibek Alimkhanuly can finally look forward to a fight.

A late-hour agreement was reached for an interim WBO middleweight title fight between Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly and England’s Danny Dignum, avoiding a purse bid hearing scheduled for Monday. BoxingScene.com has learned that the fight is being targeted for May 21, leaving the winner in favorable position to either next challenge for the full version of the title or receive an upgrade by default.

For now, the matter was resolved to the point of satisfying the WBO Championship Committee.

“Please be advised that the Purse Bid for the Interim WBO Middleweight Championship between [Alimkhanuly and Dignum] scheduled for Monday, March 28, 2022, is terminated effective immediately as the parties have reached an agreement,” confirmed the sanctioning body on Saturday.

The deal in place comes after the sanctioning body called for a purse bid hearing. Alimkhanuly’s promoter, Top Rank, and manager Egis Klimas used the one-week period between the negotiation deadline and the purse bid to come to terms with MTK Global and Probellum, who represent Dignum.

The timeframe is ideal, considering what awaits the winner. Two-division and reigning WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade (31-0, 19KOs) is due to face England’s Zach Parker (22-0, 16KOs) in an interim WBO super middleweight title fight scheduled for May 21 at Pride Park Stadium in Parker’s hometown of Derby, England. Andrade took the fight in lieu of entering a mandatory title defense versus Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7KOs), putting to end a dragged-out two-month period that featured failed talks and no fewer than four postponed purse bid hearings.

Alimkhanuly then saw ordered interim title fights with unbeaten middleweights Esquiva Falcao (29-0, 20KOs) and Jaime Munguia (39-0, 31KOs) both end at the negotiating table. Brazil’s Falcao—a silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympics—bowed out in favor of waiting out his current status as a mandatory contender for the IBF middleweight title. Munguia managed to squander mandatory title fights with the WBO and WBC, ghosting Alimkhanuly and the WBO altogether during the negotiation period.

Alimkhanuly emerged as the highest ranked available challenger thanks to back-to-back eighth-round stoppages of former secondary WBA titlists Rob Brant and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam. Alimkhanuly tore through Brant in their one-sided affair last June in Las Vegas, where he returned to take out N’Dam on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s WBO welterweight-defending stoppage win over Shawn Porter last November at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Dignum entered the equation as a willing participant, advancing in the WBO middleweight rankings following a sixth-round knockout of Grant Dennis on February 11 the famed York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. The 29-year-old southpaw signed with upstart promotional company Probellum soon thereafter, while still represented by managerial conglomerate MTK Global who was contacted by the WBO to enter negotiations with Top Rank and Klimas.

The eventual interim WBO middleweight titlist will not have to wait long after their May 21 fight for next steps. Andrade will have to beat Parker and decide within ten days whether he plans to return to middleweight or if he will stay put in the 168-pound super middleweight division. Should Andrade opt to remain at super middleweight—or if he loses to Parker—the Alimkhanuly-Dignum winner will become the full WBO middleweight titlist by default. A decision by Andrade to return to middleweight will result in the WBO immediately ordering a mandatory title defense.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox