Pat McCormack's scheduled 10-round main event matchup against Miguel Parra on Saturday has now been upgraded to a final eliminator for the WBA welterweight world title.
In the WBA's latest rankings published overnight, McCormack (7-0, 5 KOs) rose a place to No. 7 with the sanctioning body. Mexico's Parra (25-5-1, 17 KOs) sits at No. 12, having reeled off three wins since losing a 10-round split decision to top-ranked contender Shakhram Giyasov last July in the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov fight week festivities.
Rolando Romero was elevated to full champion last month, upon confirmation of RING and unified beltholder Jaron Ennis' impending junior middleweight move.
BoxingScene were first to report news of the change, coming at an uncertain time in the 147-pound division with several moving parts and new contenders targeting title shots.
Former champion
Eimantas Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs) and promotional stablemate
Jack Catterall (31-2, 13 KOs) are among those ranked higher than the Sunderland-born contender, though it's unclear why the decision came for such an upgrade on short-notice.
Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn hinted that McCormack would be in line to challenge for British honours at 147-pounds having stopped Liverpool's Robbie Davies after six rounds during their February 15 meeting.
The 30-year-old won Olympic silver at the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021 and this bout was originally slated to be another WBA Intercontinental title defence.
In a press release, McCormack said: "I believe people have only seen about 65% of me and I'm only getting better. In my last fight [vs. Davies], I proved I'm better than British level, and a win on September 6 puts me up onto the world stage. Parra is tough, game and been in there with some good people, so I've got an opportunity to make a statement."