Interim heavyweight titleholder Luis "King Kong" Ortiz and mandatory challenger Alexander Ustinov have come to terms and will meet on a date to be determined in August or September, Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez told ESPN.com on Tuesday.
"We have a deal in place with Frank Warren," Gomez said, referring to Ustinov's promoter. "We have an agreement in principle, but nothing is signed. We are going to contract this week, and we will notify the WBA that we have a deal."
The WBA had ordered a purse bid to take place May 19 at its headquarters in Panama, with a minimum offer of $600,000 and Ortiz entitled to 60 percent and Ustinov 40 percent. But the promoters were able to make a deal, which means the bid will be canceled once the organization is formally notified.
Golden Boy had hoped that it could make a deal with Warren in time to have the bout take place last Saturday night on the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan pay-per-view undercard in Las Vegas, but they could not make one in time.
"So we kept negotiating with Frank Warren, and we were able to come to an agreement," Gomez said. "The fight will be on HBO, and we're looking at August or September."
No site has been determined, but Gomez said the fight will take place in the United States.
Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs), 37, a Cuban defector who fights out of Miami, claimed the vacant interim belt by one-sided third-round knockout of Matias Ariel Vidondo in October. Vidondo was an unknown, untested opponent, but Ortiz then vaulted himself near the top of the division in December when he scored an impressive seventh-round knockout of contender Bryant Jennings, who had gone the distance with then-world champion Wladimir Klitschko eight months earlier.
Ortiz, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound southpaw with tremendous punching power, made his second defense on March 5, drilling perennial contender Tony Thompson in the sixth round.
"King Kong is ready, willing and able to fight anybody. He will fight anyone," Gomez said. "We are looking forward to getting this fight with Ustinov on."
Ustinov (33-1, 24 KOs), a 6-7½ , 288-pound native of Russia who is based in Belarus, has won six fights in a row since his lone defeat, an 11th-round knockout to former world title challenger Kubrat Pulev, who won the European title on Saturday. Most recently, Ustinov, 30, knocked out Konstantin Airich in the fifth round in December.
The Ortiz-Ustinov winner will move a step closer to a mandatory fight with the winner of the July 9 rematch between champion Tyson Fury and Klitschko. The WBA has not yet determined the situation with the "regular" title held by Lucas Browne, who could be stripped following a recent positive drug test.