Demetrius Andrade will set his sights on a third weight division.

BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Providence’s Andrade has formally accepted the terms surrounding his ordered WBO interim super middleweight title fight with England’s Zach Parker. The decision will mean a road trip for Andrade, a two-division and reigning WBO middleweight titlist who will fight outside the United States for just the second time in his 13-plus year pro career. The fight is tentatively scheduled for May 21 at a yet-to-be-confirmed location in England.

Queensberry Promotions, Parker’s promoter, claimed the rights to the fight after submitting a winning bid of $1,834,050 during Friday’s purse bid hearing held at WBO headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The bid outpaced the next highest offer from Matchroom Boxing, Andrade’s promoter who offered $1,750,000 in an earnest effort to secure promotional rights. Both sides were given 48 hours following the session to agree to move forward with the fight, with Andrade (31-0, 19KOs) using the full period before offering his decision just before the deadline.

Andrade is entitled 65% of the winning bid, or $1,192,132.50. The remaining 35% ($641,917.50) goes to Parker (22-0, 16KOs), the longtime number-one contender in the WBO super middleweight rankings.

In theory, the winner will become the WBO mandatory challenger to undisputed WBA/WBC/IBF/WBO super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) who was permitted by all four major sanctioning bodies to next fight outside the division. Alvarez confirmed plans to challenge WBA light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11KOs), which will take place May 7 at a location to be determined.

However, the purse bid order noted that the WBO can order “that the winner of the Parker/Andrade bout faces in his next bout the Interim Champion, or Mandatory Challenger, as the case may be, of any of the remaining three (WBA, WBC & IBF) recognized sanctioning organizations.”

The WBO and WBC have both confirmed its willingness to explore the possibility of an interim title fight unification.  The unique scenario would have Andrade-Parker winner to face whoever prevails in the soon-to-be-announced WBC interim super middleweight title fight between former two-time full champ David Benavidez (25-0, 22KOs) and former IBF middleweight titlist David Lemieux (43-4, 36KOs) which is also eyed for mid-May. From there, the winner would serve as the mandatory for two sanctioning bodies.

Separate from that, Andrade will have a decision of his own to make even with a win over Parker. Should the 33-year-old-southpaw emerge victorious, he will have ten days to decide whether to remain at super middleweight or resume his WBO middleweight title reign.

The latter puts him on the hook for a mandatory title defense versus the winner of a WBO interim middleweight title fight involving Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7KOs), whose mandatory title status was enforced by the WBO in ordering a title fight with Andrade last November 30. Talks dragged on for nearly two months, including three separate purse bid delays and an outright cancellation once Andrade was permitted to instead face Parker for an interim super middleweight title.

Parker has held the number-one spot in the WBO super middleweight rankings since November 2020, only after Alvarez committed to a fight with Callum Smith for the WBA “Super” and vacant WBC title. Alvarez was permitted to jump the line as a WBO Super champion, despite Parker having previously won a sanctioned title eliminator in a March 2020 11th round knockout of Rohan Murdock. Parker has since won three fights, including a fourth-round stoppage of Marcus Morrison last November 6 in Birmingham, England.

Suggested locations for Parker-Andrade include London, Birmingham and Parker’s home region of Derby, England.

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