It was all but a given that Artem Dalakian would have to travel for his next outing

The good news for the unbeaten WBA flyweight titlist is that the road trip will take place on neutral ground.

BoxingScene.com has confirmed that a deal has been reached in principle between Ukraine’s Dalakian and Costa Rica’s David Jimenez for their ordered WBA mandatory title fight. Final details are being worked out, though Union Boxing Promotions—Dalakian’s promoter—confirmed to BoxingScene.com that the bout is targeted for late January.

“A preliminary agreement has been reached for the fight, which should take place in the end of January in Europe,” Dmitry Eliseev, co-founder and vice president of Union Boxing, told BoxingScene.com. “At the moment we are working on the final agreement.”

The conditional deal in place for the fight was enough to prevent the WBA from having to call for a purse bid hearing. The mandatory title fight was initially ordered on August 31, with both sides eager to make a deal but stuck on where to stage the fight.

Dalakian (21-0, 15KOs)—an Azerbaijan-born boxer who lives in Kiev, Ukraine—won the vacant WBA flyweight title in a September 2018 win over former two-division titlist Brian Viloria in Inglewood, California. The balance of his reign has taken place in his adopted Ukraine homeland, with all five title defenses taking place in Kiev though he has not fought since a ninth-round knockout of Luis ‘Nica’ Concepcion last November 20.

Staging his next fight at home was not at all an option in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine which has left much of the nation in ruins in addition to the unsafe conditions surrounding everyday residents.

There was consideration given to staging the mandatory title fight in Jimenez’s native Costa Rica, which would have allowed promoter Ernesto Salvador’s Fight Club Costa Rica to take the lead. It was since decided that both boxers stood to make far more at a neutral location.

Jimenez (12-0, 9KOs) emerged as the number-one contender following an upset win over Ricardo Sandoval on July 16 in Los Angeles. Sandoval was the IBF mandatory challenger but never cashed in that opportunity, instead seeking to go the WBA route.

It miserably backfired as he was outworked by Jimenez, a 30-year-old contender from Cartago, Costa Rica who rose to the occasion in his U.S. debut. The fight took place on the undercard of rising lightweight contender Ryan Garcia’s sixth-round knockout of Javier Fortuna, helping raise Jimenez’s profile ahead of his first career title fight.

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