WBO president Gustavo Olivieri announced Wednesday that he received written notification that their representatives reached an agreement. According to The Ring’s Mike Coppinger, Alimkhanuly and Bank will square off sometime in December at a venue to be determined in Bank’s home country of Denmark.

Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) was the mandatory challenger for former titleholder Hamzah Sheeraz. After Queensberry Promotions bid $1,001,809 to win the right to promote their fight, Sheeraz (24-0-1, 19 KOs), The Ring’s No. 9-ranked super middleweight, vacated his title on September 18 rather than face the former unified middleweight champion.

With Bank (20-0, 11 KOs) next in the WBO’s rankings, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based sanctioning body ordered him to face Alimkhanuly for the vacant title.

Bank, The Ring’s No. 8 contender at 168 pounds, also petitioned the WBO to be the mandatory challenger for Sheeraz before it placed Alimkhanuly in that position.

Alimkhanuly, 33, hasn’t fought since his fifth-round stoppage of Anauel Ngamissengue in April 2025.

The southpaw previously held the IBF and WBO middleweight titles and was scheduled to face WBA champion Erislandy Lara in a unification fight December 6 in San Antonio. Alimkhanuly tested positive for meldonium, a banned substance, which forced his late removal from that bout during fight week.

He was stripped by the IBF and suspended for one year by the WBO, though the WBO allowed him to hold onto its title. The suspension was lifted after he vacated its middleweight title to move up to 168 pounds.

Bank, 25, is coming off a unanimous-decision victory over Pawel Augustynik in an eight-round bout on July 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.