Raeese Aleem and his team informed the World Boxing Association (WBA) that he will step into the ring on November 27 to fight Eduardo Baez and will not fulfill his WBA-ordered eliminator fight against Azat Hovhannisyan. Therefore Hovhannisyan will be named mandatory challenger at super bantamweight in the next WBA rankings.

Last Friday, the purse bid for the fight between Aleem and Hovhannisyan took place, in which Golden Boy won the promotional rights of the fight, which was scheduled for next December or January. However, Aleem informed the pioneer body that he would not comply, so Hovhannisyan will get his title shot against Murodjon Akhmadaliev (current champion), or whoever the champion is at the time the mandatory arrives.

The WBA has been reviewing division by division with the intention of reducing the world titles in a plan that started about three months ago and has been progressing at a good pace.