The World Boxing Association (WBA) Championships Committee ordered the start of negotiations between Belarussian Kyril Relikh, who is the current champion at 140 pounds, and Russia's Eduard Troyanovsky, who holds the number three ranking in the organization.

The resolution is issued pursuant to Championship Rule C-12 of the WBA Rules, which indicates that a boxer who obtained the title in an elimination fight for a vacant belt which resides in a division other than heavyweight, must make his first defense in a period of 120 days.

Relikh won the WBA super lightweight title, which was vacant, on March 10th in his rematch against Cuba's Rances Barthelemy.

Both parties were duly notified and given a period of 30 days to reach an agreement, otherwise the fight will be called to a purse bid.

Troyonosvky (27-1, 24 KOs), 37 years old, is looking for one final world title run.

The Russian fighter previously held the IBF, IBO titles when he suffered a shocking first round knockout at the hands of Julius Indongo in December 2016.

He was able to recover with back to back knockout victories over Michele Di Rocco and Caslos Manuel Portillo in 2017.

He's never fought outside of Russia and Germany.

For Relikh, he suffered back to back decision losses to Ricky Burns and Barthelemy. At that time Relikh was being trained by former world champion Ricky Hatton. The hard puncher eventually made changes to his team and worked on improving his style.

The WBA felt the scorecards in the first Barthelemy fight were too wide and ordered a rematch. Because the title became vacant when Terence Crawford moved up to the welterweight limit, the sanctioning body staked their belt in the rematch.

The second time around Relikh dominated Barthelemy from start to finish, with a non-stop flurry of punches for twelve rounds. Both the first and second contest was televised in the United States by Showtime.