Rey Vargas' next WBC super bantamweight title defense will have him face interim titleholder Tomoki Kameda.
Golden Boy Promotions announced that the two will face off for the 122-pound world title on July 13 at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The fight will serve as the main event of a DAZN card.
Vargas has held the WBC title since winning a majority decision against Gavin McDonnell in 2017. Since then, he has made four successful title defenses. Vargas last fought on February 9 in Indio, California where he recovered from a second-round knockdown to win a 12-round decision against Franklin Manzanilla. That fight was streamed on DAZN in the United States.
After Vargas' May 2018 title defense against Azat Hovhannisyan, he spent the rest of the year recovering from numerous injuries. While Vargas was recovering, the WBC created an interim title with Kameda and Abigail Medina fighting for the belt last November at Korakuen Hall in Japan. Kameda would go on to win the fight by unanimous decision. Kameda has won his last five bouts and was once the WBO bantamweight world champion.
The fight would mark the second straight month DAZN holds a Golden Boy Promotions card in California with the first one being the June 21 card headlined by the rematch between Andrew Cancio and Alberto Machado.
Although Vargas will be making a mandatory title defense, that doesn't mean that he won't have a mandatory challenger waiting in the wings by the time he and Kameda fight. On June 23 in Las Vegas, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Julio Ceja will fight in a WBC title eliminator in a bout that will serve as the co-main event of a PBC on Fox card from the Mandalay Bay.