The WBO have officially ordered Sam Noakes and Abdullah Mason to fight for their vacant lightweight title, the sanctioning body's president Gustavo Olivieri has confirmed.

The two sides now have 20 days to agree a deal or the bout will head to purse bids.

Mason, The Ring's No. 10 135-pounder recently beat Jeremia Nakathila by 5th-round stoppage in his first main event after originally headliner Keyshawn Davis was pulled after missing weight.

Davis, who was set to defend his WBO title against Edwin de Los Santos at his hometown Norfolk, Virginia's Scope Arena, lost his belt on the scales after coming in 4.3 pounds overweight.

That leaves the WBO No. 2 contender Mason, from Cleveland, Ohio, and its No. 1-rated fighter Noakes, from Maidstone, England, to battle it out for the vacant strap.

Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs), who is ranked No. 9 by The Ring, one place above Mason, was last in action on the Anthony Cacace-Leigh Wood bill, knocking out Patrik Balaz in 3rd round.

Noakes, 27, is the current British and Commonwealth lightweight titleholder and previously held the European title after winning it against France's Yvan Bendy by decision in April 2024.

Mason (19-0, 17 KOs) is a Ring ambassador and has fast become one of the hottest prospects in the sport today at the age of 21.

He recently told The Ring he would be willing to travel to the UK to fight Noakes.

"Going out to the UK, that’d be crazy," Mason said. "I'm definitely all for the idea, if everything is right to go out there, show out there. The one thing about the UK, me and my team actually been talking about it, how the experience would be going out there, just wanting to be out there period because the fan base is so crazy. It's even crazier than it is here.

"They stadiums be packed — 70,000, 80,000 people. Here you get some crazy packed fights, but it's not getting up there. You get 20 [thousand], 30,000 over here. But going out there, it wouldn't only be big for me, but I'll say probably big for boxing to showcase my talents in a country where they love boxing. And I feel like I do have those talents, to where if I go out there, they’ll love me."

On Wednesday, HE Turki Alalshikh included Mason in a list of young fighters who were in the running to compete on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford card, which is scheduled for September 13 and is to be streamed live on Netflix to its 300 million-plus subscriber base.

There's now a very real possibility that Mason's first title fight, against Noakes, could land on that card, which is set to take place in Las Vegas at a venue yet to be determined.

“The world will be watching Riyadh Season’s Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight of the century on Netflix,” Alalshikh wrote on X. “And for that, I want to load the undercard with young, hungry fighters who deserve the chance to perform under the bright lights. These are some of the names I hope to see fighting in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, led by The Ring [118-pound] champion Junto [Nakatani]. If you are interested, you and your teams know how to find me.”

The list also included super middleweight hard-hitter Christian Mbilli and featherweight talent Reito Tsutsumi.