Mark Magsayo vs. Rey Vargas: date, time, how to watch, background

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Featherweight titleholder Mark Magsayo will make the primary protection of his 126-pound title towards Rey Vargas on Saturday in San Antonio.

MARK MAGSAYO (24-0, 16 KOS) VS. REY VARGAS (35-0, 22 KOS)

Date: Saturday, July 9
Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m.. PT (predominant occasion later in present)
The place: Alamodome, San Antonio
TV/Stream: Showtime
Division: Featherweight (limitless)
Rounds: 12
At stake: Magsayo’s WBC title
Pound-for-pound rating: None
Odds: Even (common of a number of retailers)
Additionally on the cardboard: Brandon Figueroa vs. Carlos Castro, featherweights; Rashidi Ellis vs. Alberto Palmetta, welterweights
Prediction: Joyce KO 5
Background: Mark Magsayo upset Gary Russell Jr. by a majority choice to win the WBC featherweight title in January. On Saturday, the Filipino will try to show that break-through victory was no fluke. The protégé of his promoter, Manny Pacquiao, is an enhancing boxer with elite punching energy. He wanted the latter towards Julio Ceja within the struggle that preceded his victory over Russell, as Ceja was successful on all playing cards when he was stopped in the 10^th round. That earned Magsayo a shot at Russell, the long-reigning 126-pound champion who injured (or re-injured) his proper shoulder early within the struggle. The challenger did sufficient to win on two playing cards and stroll away along with his first main title. He figures to obtain a stiff problem from Vargas, a tall (5-foot-10½), slick boxer-puncher from Mexico. He received the WBC 122-pound title by outpointing Gavin McDonnell in 2017 and made 5 profitable defenses earlier than accidents compelled him to step away from the game between 2019 and final 12 months. He returned as a 126-pounder and simply outpointed Leonardo Baez in his comeback struggle, which happened in November. The oddsmakers see this as a 50-50 matchup. Additionally on the cardboard, Brandon Figueroa (22-1, 17 KOs) will make his debut at 122 kilos towards Carlos Castro (27-1, 12 KOs) of Mexico. He misplaced a disputed choice in a 118-pound title-unification bout with Stephen Fulton in November, his most-recent struggle.