A few notes from around the boxing world:

• Welterweight prospect Errol Spence Jr. (18-0, 15 KOs) and Alejandro Barrera (28-2, 18 KOs) had their 12-round bout upgraded to a world title eliminator. They meet Saturday (NBC, 3 p.m. ET) at the Bomb Factory in Dallas. Titleholder Kell Brook has been ordered to negotiate with his mandatory challenger, Kevin Bizier. Once Brook-Bizier is over sometime early in 2016, the Spence-Barrera winner will be ordered to fight the IBF's leading available contender to produce the mandatory challenger for the Brook-Bizier fight. Spence-Barrera will take place as the co-feature on the Premier Boxing Champions card headlined by junior middleweight titleholder Jermall Charlo (22-0, 17 KOs) against “Silky” Wilky Campfort (21-1, 12 KOs). In the scheduled 10-round opener, junior middleweight prospect Erickson Lubin (12-0, 9 KOs) will fight Alexis Camacho (21-5, 19 KOs).

• Featherweight prospect Joseph Diaz (18-0, 10 KOs), a 2012 U.S. Olympian from South El Monte, California, returns to face Mexico’s Hugo Partida (20-6-2, 15 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round fight on Dec.18 (Estrella TV) at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. "Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. is on his way to stardom and this is a great way for him to close out a spectacular year of fights he had in 2015,” Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya said. “Joseph is, without a doubt, a future star for the sport.” In the 10-round featherweight co-feature, Nicaragua’s Rene Alvarado (22-5, 15 KOs) faces Andrew Cancio (15-3-2, 11 KOs), of Blythe, California, and Chinese heavyweight Taishan Dong (5-0, 3KOs) will face Mexico’s Daniel Arambula (3-1 1 KO) in the opener.

• Junior bantamweight titlist McJoe Arroyo (17-0, 8 KOs), of Puerto Rico, has been ordered to make his mandatory defense against Jerwin Ancajas (24-1-1, 16 KOs), a Manny Pacquiao-promoted fighter from the Philippines, on or before Jan. 18. If the sides do not reach an agreement by Dec. 18, the IBF will order a purse bid. Arroyo won the vacant belt by 10th-round technical decision against Arthur Villanueva on July 18 and has yet to make a defense. Ancajas has won 11 fights in a row since a loss in 2012.

• Super middleweight titlist Fedor Chudinov (14-0, 10 KOs), of Russia, and former middleweight titleholder Felix Sturm (39-5-3, 18 KOs), of Germany, were slated to meet in a rematch on Dec. 5 in Germany but the fight is off with no reason given but expected to be rescheduled in early 2016. On May 9 in Germany, Chudinov won a split decision against Sturm to claim a vacant belt. He defended it on Sept. 26, winning a unanimous decision against England’s Frank Buglioni in London.