By Ian S Palmer
Current WBC Featherweight and former WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Rey Vargas of Mexico will be attempting to capture the vacant WBC Junior Lightweight Title this Saturday, February 11th when he meets O’Shaquie Foster of Orange, Texas. The 12-rounder from San Antonio, Texas can be seen live in America on Showtime. The unbeaten Vargas last fought in July when he got up from the canvas in round nine to beat Mark Magsayo by split decision to win the WBC Featherweight Title. Foster last saw action in March when he dealt Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov a 12-round unanimous decision defeat after decking him the last round to retain his WBC Silver Super Featherweight Crown.
The 32-year-old Vargas of Mexico City will climb into the ring with a perfect record of 36-0 with 22 Kos. He gave up his super bantamweight world title due to a broken leg after successfully defending it five times. He had won the vacant belt in February, 2017 via majority decision over Gavin McDonnell and defended it against Ronny Rios, Oscar Negrete, Azat Hovhannisyan, Franklin Manzanilla and Tomoki Kameda.
He then moved up in weight to beat Magsayo for the WBC Featherweight Crown and is moving up again this weekend in a shot at the WBC Junior Lightweight (Super Featherweight) Belt. Vargas also has wins over former world title challengers Juanito Rubillar and Cecilio Santos. The former champ stands 5-feet-10-inches tall with 70.5-inch reach and has fought 222 rounds since turning pro in 2010.
Vargas enjoyed a pretty good amateur career as he won the 2009 Pan American Bantamweight Title and fought in the World Youth Championships a year earlier. However, he did lose to Oscar Valdez and Luke Campbell as an amateur. Vargas owns pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 61.1 per cent but it’s been missing in action lately as he’s gone the distance in eight straight fights with his last stoppage coming in the fifth round over Alexander Munoz in September, 2016.
Vargas is a solid pro with a pretty good chin and skills but hasn’t been particularly impressive in the past few bouts. He’s also won the IBF Youth, WBC Youth Intercontinental, and WBC Youth Silver Super Bantamweight Titles since turning pro as well as the WBC International Silver Super Bantamweight Crown.
The 29-year-old Foster climbs through the ropes with a mark of 19-2 with 11 Ko’s and has boxed 110 rounds since making his pro debut in 2012. He also enjoyed a decent amateur career and made it to the 2007 National silver Gloves Final in the 12/13-year-old division and reached the 2010 USA Junior National Championship Semifinal but lost a couple of times to Joseph Diaz and was also beaten by Oscar Valdez.
As a pro, Foster has captured the WBC Silver Super Featherweight Title with a 10-round unanimous decision over Jon Fernandez in 2010 and took the vacant WBA Fedecentro Super Featherweight Belt in 2019 when he stopped Jesus Bravo in the eighth round. He also has wins over Miguel Roman, Alberto Mercado and Fatiou Fassinou. His defeats came at the hands of Samuel Teah by eight-round unanimous decision in 2015 and to Rolando Chinea via an eight-round split decision a year later.
Foster stands just over 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 72-inch reach which means he’s 1.5-inches shorter than Vargas but has a 1.5-inch advantage in reach. As far as power goes, Foster’s current knockout ratio stands at 52.4 per cent. He’s riding a nine-fight winning streak but has gone the distance in five of those contests.
Prediction…
Vargas’ power hasn’t been evident lately as he’s gone eight straight fights without a stoppage and he’s now moving up in weight again. Therefore he may need to rely on his boxing skills once again to win this title against a naturally bigger opponent. Vargas is one of those boxers who manages to do enough to win no matter if he’s the favourite or underdog. I’d be surprised if he ends his career as an undefeated fighter but don’t know if Foster will be the man to beat him. This is a close fight but I think I’ll go with Foster in a mild upset here. However, be aware I’ve picked Vargas to lose before but he’s still unbeaten as a pro.
