Miguel Berchelt and Francisco Vargas are ready to meet once more in a battle of boxing's two best super featherweights.
Top Rank announced that Berchelt and Vargas are going to be fighting for the WBC super featherweight title on March 23 at The Forum in Los Angeles. The fight will headline a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card and was made after Top Rank finalized a deal with Vargas' promoter Golden Boy Promotions.
The two had previously fought in January 2017 in a bout that ended up being a violent all-Mexican clash with nearly 2,000 total punches being thrown between both boxers. Berchelt, ahead on two of the three scorecards by just one point, won the fight by stopping Vargas in the 11th round to win the WBC title.
That loss ended Vargas' 14-month reign as world champion. Since losing to Berchelt, Vargas had only fought twice, both stoppage victories over Stephen Smith and Rod Salka in December 2017 and April 2018 respectively. Now on a two-fight win streak, Vargas ascended to the top of the WBC rankings.
Since winning the WBC title, Berchelt has made four successful title defenses, starting with a win over former champion Takashi Miura. Berchelt won all three title defenses last year, with victories over Maxwell Awuku and Jonathan Victor Barros in optional title defenses in the first six months of 2018. Berchelt's last fight took place on an ESPN+ card in Texas this past November, scoring a ninth-round TKO win over mandatory challenger Miguel Roman.
