Brandon Figueroa from Weslaco, Texas, and Filipino Mark Magasayo, who fights out Valencia, California, USA, meet in a matchup for the interim WBC featherweight title at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California, on Saturday.
Rey Vargas, the reigning WBC featherweight champion, recently lost a WBC title attempt at junior lightweight, so the WBC have ruled that Figueroa and Magasayo meet for the interim title.
Serving as interim WBA junior featherweight champion, Figueroa (23-1-1; 18) was moved up to full champion in 2019 and made two successful defences before becoming the full WBC champion after scoring a seventh-round knockout against Luis Nery in May 2021.
However, six months later he lost both belts when Stephen Fulton Jr won on a 12-round points decision.
He then moved up to featherweight and, in his only fight since then, he won on a sixth-round stoppage against Carlos Castro in July last year.
Magasayo (24-1; 16) won the WBC featherweight belt in January last year with a majority points decision over Gary Russell Jr, but lost it in his first defence against Rey Vargas on 9 July of the same year.
This could end up in a closely contested fight going the distance.
NEWS ROUNDUP
WBO and WBC No 1 junior middleweight Tim Tszyu (21-0; 15) meets Tony Harrison (29-3-1; 21) for the WBO interim title on Sunday 12 March (Saturday, March 11 in the USA) at the Quos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
The WBO Championship Committee has ordered welterweight champion Terence Crawford (39-0; 30) to begin negotiations with Alexis Rocha (22-1; 14) for a mandatory defence and they must reach agreement within 20 days.
The IBF have ordered Melvin “Melo” Lopez (29-1; 19) and Emmanuel Rodriguez (21-2; 13) to fight for the vacant IBF bantamweight title with negotiations to be concluded by 28 March 2023.
Former two-division world champion 39-year-old Badou Jack (28-3-3; 17) stopped WBC cruiserweight champion Junior Makabu (29-3; 25) in the 12th round last Sunday night at the Diriyah Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The time was 54 seconds.
SA junior welterweight boxing champ Sibusiso “Prince” Dlomo (16-11-1; 6) is scheduled to meet Khariton Argba (10-0; 6) in Divs, Ekaterinburg, Russia, in a ten-round bout on Tuesday 7 March.
Shervontaig Koopman makes the second defence of his South African junior middleweight title against Jackson Kaptein at Emperor Palace, Kempton Park, on Saturday 18 March.