After being informed that Richardson Hitchins is vacating his junior welterweight title to move up in weight, the sanctioning body has reached out to Teofimo Lopez to find out his availability for a matchup against Lindolfo Delgado for the belt.

Initially, after falling ill and pulling out of his title defense against Oscar Duarte, Hitchins was ordered to defend his strap against Delgado, its No. 1 contender. However, after the Brooklyn native made his decision, the IBF pivoted to its next highest-ranked challenger to face Delgado (24-0, 16 KOs).

Lopez is No. 5 in the IBF. No. 2 is vacant and the Nos. 3 and 4 ranked contenders, Duarte and Keyshawn Davis, have fights lined up. Duarte returns May 2 against Angel Fierro in Las Vegas, while Davis is fighting Nahir Albright on May 16 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Lopez, of course, is coming off a lackluster showing, losing nearly every second of every round against Shakur Stevenson at “The Ring 6” in New York’s Madison Square Garden on January 31. In the process, Lopez lost his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles.

A shot at another world title around might be tempting, but Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) said on numerous occasions that he plans on moving up to welterweight.

If Lopez informs the IBF that he won’t be participating, Arthur Biyarslanov would be next in line. The 30-year-old Russian is coming off a seventh-round stoppage over Jimerr Espinosa. Prior to that, he grabbed the biggest win of his career, a lopsided points victory over former champion Sergey Lipinets.