Rey Vargas and O’Shaquie Foster headline a Showtime card that gets underway at 9 p.m. ET. Vargas and Foster are meeting for the vacant WBC junior lightweight title, with their ring walks likely happening close to midnight ET. The bout is airing on regular Showtime and not as a PPV.
It’s not entirely clear how much the two fighters are making for the bout. A website called sportspayouts.com is claiming they have confirmed that Vargas will earn $500,000 for the fight while Foster will earn $275,000. They suggest a potential PPV split, but given that this fight is not on PPV, we’ll have to take their report with a significant grain of salt.
That being said, we can view Vargas (36-0) as the proverbial “A” side of the fight. He’s coming off successful run in the junior featherweight division. He spent much of his career there where he eventually captured the WBC title in 2017. After five successful defenses he moved up to featherweight where he captured the WBC title in that division with a split decision win over Mark Magsayo last July. He’s making his junior lightweight debut in this bout.
Foster (19-2) has won nine straight bouts and has found success in the junior lightweight division. He won the WBC’s Silver title in 2018 with a unanimous decision win over Jon Fernandez. Ten months later, he won the WBA Fedecentro title and since then has three straight successful defenses of his Silver title.
Vargas is a -140 favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook while Foster is a +110 underdog.