Rey Vargas may maintain the WBC featherweight and tremendous featherweight titles concurrently if he beats O’Shaquie Foster on February 11.
Vargas gained the WBC featherweight championship from Mark Magsayo in his final bout, however he didn’t have to relinquish it to maneuver up, maybe quickly, to the 130-pound restrict to combat Foster for the WBC’s unclaimed tremendous featherweight belt. Mexico’s Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs) and Houston’s Foster (19-2, 11 KOs), the WBC’s primary contender within the tremendous featherweight division, will combat for the aforementioned championship in a “Showtime Championship Boxing” foremost occasion at Alamodome in San Antonio.
If Vargas wins, he isn’t certain whether or not he’ll stay within the 130-pound division for his following combat or return to the 126-pound restrict for a protection of his WBC featherweight crown.
“The featherweight title is totally nonetheless mine,” Vargas stated Wednesday throughout a digital press convention, in response to his translator. “So, no worries about that. So far as 130, that is undoubtedly an attention-grabbing problem, an attention-grabbing place to be. We haven’t actually determined what we’re gonna do afterwards, however we’re centered on the second proper now. Let’s deal with this combat, on this nice crowd that we’re gonna be in entrance of, after which no matter occurs, it can come after this combat.”
The 32-year-old Vargas edged the Philippines’ Magsayo (24-1, 16 KOs) by break up resolution to take the WBC featherweight title from him July 9 at Alamodome.
Shakur Stevenson gave up his WBC and WBO 130-pound championships on the scale September 22, when he got here in obese for a 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Brazil’s Robson Conceicao (17-2, 8 KOs) the subsequent night time at Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey. The WBC then accredited a Vargas-Foster combat for the title stripped from Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs).
Vargas thought there was an opportunity he would face four-division champion Leo Santa Cruz subsequent in what would’ve been a featherweight title unification combat. The Otumba, Mexico native nonetheless desires to field Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs), however he’s centered for now on turning into a world champion in a 3rd weight class.
“The Leo Santa Cruz combat is certainly one thing that we’ve been that means to do for years now,” Vargas stated. “However as the method obtained extra sophisticated and different stuff simply saved getting in our manner, this door opened for us, the place it was undoubtedly an attention-grabbing problem, one thing that may be pretty much as good because the Leo Santa Cruz combat.
“[I’m] in a brand new division, the tremendous featherweight division, the place I can take a look at myself. Sure, it’s not my division per se, however I’m all the time as much as new and thrilling challenges, and that is undoubtedly one in all them. So, although this isn’t the Leo Santa Cruz combat, it could undoubtedly reside as much as the hype simply as that one would.”
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He may be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.