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WBC Featherweight World Champion Mark "Magnefico" Magsayo and former World Champion Rey Vargas will compete for the WBC Featherweight Championship this week on July 9 at Almodom in San Antonio, Texas. This will be Magsayo's first title defense. Vargas, meanwhile, is a former WBC Super Bantamweight champion and wants to win gold in his second weight class.
Competition is more likely to be an interesting affair. Both the boxers are unbeaten and both have proved their championship level. Both have won more than 60% of their careers through stoppage, which raises the question of who is the knockout artist?
Filipino thriller Magsayo (24-0, 16 KOs) fights for Pasig City, Metro Manila en route to Los Angeles, California, and became the country's latest boxing champion in January when he overtook longtime champion Gary Russell Jr. Left To win the 12 126 title at showtime. The 26-year-old got the chance in August 2021 by knocking out former champion Julio Ceja in the 10th round of the fight on the scorecards. Magsayo has been coached by Freddie Roach in Southern California and has won 12 rounds against Shoto Hayashi and Ramiro Robles, in addition to the sixth round stoppage of former title challenger Chris Avalos.
The former WBC 122-pound world champion, Vargas (35-0, 22 KOs), returned from injury and almost shut out in his featherweight debut against Leonardo Baez on the undercard of Canelo vs. Plant in November 2021. Won Plant. The 31-year-old took to the streets to head to the UK to clinch his title in 2017, before winning the undefeated Gavin McDonnell. A native of Mexico City, Vargas defended his title five times, defeating Oscar Negrete, Ronny Rios and Azat Hovhannisyan. His fifth successful title defense came in July 2019 with a unanimous decision on former world champion Tomoki Kameda.
Magsayo vs. Vargas will be a fight between two rising stars. ' Magnefico ' will look to start a long reign as WBC Featherweight Champion and Rey Vargas would like to continue their success by winning world titles in their second weight class. Boxing has the potential to be a thrilling contest as both fighters have a habit of responding to fire with fire.
The co-main event is a twelve-round WBC featherweight title eliminator between former world champion Brendon Figuero (22-1-1, 17 KOs) of Weslaco, Texas and Carlos Castro (27-1, 12 KOs) of Sonora, Mexico. Kicking off the unbeaten main card of Indianapolis' Frank Martin (15-0, 11 KOs), Indiana will face La Chorrera, Panama's Ricardo News (23-3, 21 KOs) in ten rounds.
The full lineup can be found below.
Main Card
Mark Magsayo vs. Rey Vargas, 12 rounds, featherweight – Magsayo’s WBC featherweight title
Brandon Figueroa vs. Carlos Castro, 12 rounds, featherweight – WBC featherweight title eliminator
Frank Martin vs. Ricardo Nunez, 10 rounds, lightweight
Undercard
Rashidi Ellis vs. Alberto Palmetta, 10 rounds, welterweight
Ramon Cardenas vs. Michell Banquez, 10 rounds, bantamweight
