Rey Vargas, O'Shaquie Foster Reach Terms For Vacant WBC Title Fight, Avoid Purse Bid
The currently available WBC junior lightweight title won’t remain vacant for long.
Boxing Scene has learned that the teams representing Rey Vargas and O’Shaquie Foster have reached a deal for their ordered vacant title fight, thus avoiding a purse bid hearing. The two sides were given 30 days to negotiate terms for their matchup, managing to find common ground well before the November 8 deadline.
Neither a date nor location was firmly established as this goes to publish. BS.com has learned, however, that the fight is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2023 on a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) event.
Mexico’s Vargas fights under the PBC banner. Houston’s Foster is with Probellum, co-founded by Richard Schaefer who has always enjoyed a strong relationship with PBC creator Al Haymon.
The WBC and WBO belts became available when Shakur Stevenson (19-0, 9KOs) was stripped after failing to make weight ahead of a September 23 unanimous decision win over Robson Conceicao.
Vargas (36-0, 22KOs)—an unbeaten two-division and reigning WBC featherweight titlist—submitted a request which was unanimously approved by The WBC Board of Governors to challenge for the vacant WBC junior lightweight title. It meant having to enter talks with Foster (19-2, 11KOs), who has resurrected his career and is presently among the top 130-pound contenders in the world.
The development came in lieu of a rumored WBC/WBA featherweight title unification bout with four-division and reigning WBA ‘Super’ 126-pound titlist Leo Santa Cruz that was eyed for this fall. The bout was presented to the WBA as a done deal, as means for Santa Cruz and WBA ‘World’ featherweight titleholder Leigh Wood to avoid a title consolidation clash.
Those plans backfired when Wood suffered an injury which canceled his planned fight with Mauricio ‘Bronco’ Lara, while Santa Cruz-Vargas never made its way to the schedule.
With the fallout, Vargas moved on to unexpected plans of becoming a three-division titlist. The 31-year-old from Otumba, Mexico previously held the WBC junior featherweight title from February 2017 through August 2020, when he was downgraded to Champion in Recess after a broken leg kept him out of the ring for all of 2020.
Vargas officially moved up to featherweight beginning with a ten-round win over countryman Leonardo Baez last November 5 in Las Vegas, then going on to outpoint unbeaten Mark Magsayo to win the WBC featherweight title in his most recent fight on July 9 in San Antonio.
Foster (19-2, 11KOs) is currently riding a nine-fight win streak dating back to 2017. The 29-year-old Houston native has advanced to the number-one position in the WBC junior lightweight rankings following a knockout win over Miguel Roman in November 2019 and a lopsided points victory over then-unbeaten Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov on March 18 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The winner of the forthcoming title fight will be required to make two mandatory title defenses per WBC by-laws covering vacant title fights.
The status of Vargas' WBC featherweight title is expected to be addressed during the sanctioning body's upcoming annual convention from November 6-11 in Acapulco, Mexico.
