STORY BY DAN RAFAEL OF ESPN.COM

Junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade, a 2008 U.S. Olympian and a former world amateur champion from Providence, R.I., is headed to Ukraine for his first world title shot this summer.

Andrade, the mandatory challenger, will face titleholder Zaurbek Baysangurov, of Russia, on July 6 at the Palace of Sports in Kiev, Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia, Andrade’s co-promoter, told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

The fight had been on the books since Baysangurov’s promoter, K2 Promotions Ukraine, won a purse bid last month, but now the date and location are set.

“We’re ironing out a few minor details, but for all intents and purposes the fight is done and it should be a good fight,” DeGuardia said.

In mid-April, K2 Promotions Ukraine won the purse bid for the fight with an offer of $501,200 to top the only other bid, which was $401,000 made by Andrade’s co-promoters, DeGuardia and Artie Pelullo of Banner Promotions. By winning the bid, K2 Promotions Ukraine had the right to determine the date and location for the fight.

“Certainly we’d like it to be in the United States and for Demetrius to fight the biggest fight of his career here,” DeGuardia said. “You’d rather do that than make a 12-hour trip to get there and have to adjust to the time zones. It’s always much easier to do it within driving distance, but the reality is that boxing is a world sport. It’s not baseball, where you play all your games in the United States. Boxing is a world sport and the champion is from that region and they won the purse bid.

“We did all we could to get it here, and it didn’t work. But Demetrius recognizes that this is his job and he has to go there and be the fighter that he is and win the fight. That is what it comes down to. He’s traveled overseas for the Olympics and as an amateur. Now this is the pros and he’s ready.”

DeGuardia said there is no American television outlet for the bout at this point, but that he and Pelullo are working on it and hope to have something.

“We’re trying to get American television,” he said. “We want American television and Demetrius wants his biggest fight to be seen in the United States after having so many of the fights that got him here being on (ESPN2′s) ‘Friday Night Fights.’”

Andrade (19-0, 13 KOs), 25, is coming off a 10-round shutout decision victory against former welterweight world title challenger Freddy Hernandez on Jan. 25.

Baysangurov (28-1, 20 KOs), 28, will be making his third title defense. He made his first two in 2012, winning both by unanimous decision in Ukraine. He outpointed Michael Soro in May and defeated Lukas Konecny in October.

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