Former WBC and IBF light-welterweight champion Andreas Kotelnik of Ukraine will fight current champion Devon Alexander of the United States on Aug. 7 in St. Louis.
Boxing promoter Don King was in Lviv, Kotelnik's hometown, for the contract signing Tuesday.
"He has a great camaraderie (with) the people here,'' King said. "I said, 'You're part of this community, and they're all looking up to you. You got to reach out there and get these two titles and bring back the fame and acclaim and applause to your community.'''
King said it took a while to get Kotelnik to agree to the fight.
"We stayed up for a straight 24 hours talking about all the different things, and he had his lawyers,'' King said.
The 32-year-old Kotelnik, a 2000 Olympic silver medalist, won his title in March 2008 by beating Gavin Rees. Since then, he had two successful defenses to take the WBA belt, outpointing Norio Kimura and Marcos Rene Maidana, but lost the title to Amir Khan in July 2009.
The contract holds Kotelnik to six fights over the next three years.
