By Rick Reeno

krikya360.com had been advised that the World Boxing Association has sanctioned Erislandy Lara vs. Ramon Alvarez for the WBA interim-junior middleweight title.

The winner of the fight will collide with the victor of Michel Soro (33-2-1, 22KOs) and Magomed Kurbanov (17-0, 11KOs), who battle for the vacant WBA "regular" junior middleweight title on July 20th in Paris, France. Soro also holds the WBA's "gold" title.

The WBA's "super" champion at 154 is Julian Williams, who also holds the IBF, IBO titles.

A few weeks ago, the WBA's "regular" champion was Brian Castano. He was removed from his position after failing to finalize a rematch agreement with Soro, who was the mandatory challenger to the secondary title. There was a contractual dispute which force Castano to walk away from the bout.

Lara (25-3-3, 14 KOs), a former unified champion, last fought to a twelve round split draw with Castano in March.

The fight with Alvarez is scheduled for August 31, on FOX, from the Minneapolis Armory in Minneapolis.

Alvarez (28-7-3, 16 KOs), the older brother of middleweight king Canelo Alvarez, was in action in April, when he picked up a close ten round split decision win over Jose Carlos Paz. The win allowed him to bounce back from a ninth round TKO defeat at the hands of Brandon Rios in November 2018.