Part of the Canelo vs. Plant undercard on Showtime PPV. 10 rounds @ super bantamweight. Vargas is the #1 contender a division up at featherweight and positioned as Gary Russell Jr.'s mandatory. He formerly held that same organization's championship at super bantam from 2017 until 2019 before relinquishing it when he suffered a broken leg, and then being named champ-in-recess for a time. I believe he was required to yield up that status in exchange for entering the featherweight rankings prior to even debuting there. Báez for his part holds no top 15 world ranking, although he in the past has. Several months ago he was coming off a pair of consecutive stoppage losses (to Moloney and Caraballo) and has distanced himself from that slump with a stretch of activity scoring three straight knockout victories over the summer - but all of those coming against opponents with losing records. His career highlight is shutting out a shot Moises "Chucky" Flores. Unclear whether this is a one-off for Vargas or heralding a return to 122lbs (in which case he probably feels like a right boob for giving up being champion in recess). Even if he didn't change his mind and still wants to challenge GRJ, you'd have to imagine Báez upsetting him in a tune-up would significantly affect the chances of that match-up happening, mandatory or not.
Note: this isn't the co-main event; Elvis Severino Rodríguez Mendoza vs. Juan Pablo Romero is, and "The Dog" returns in the opener. The running order for the PPV goes: Anthony Dirrell vs. Marcos Antonio Hernández, 10 rounds @ super middleweight Rey Geovani Vargas Roldán vs. Leonard Báez Valencia, 10 rounds @ super bantamweight Elvis Severino Rodríguez Mendoza vs. Juan Pablo Romero, 10 rounds @ super lightweight Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán vs. Caleb Hunter Plant, 12 rounds @ super middleweight
Anthony and Marcos are not handsome men either. They'd be a whole table with zero girls lining up for them at a middle school dance.
Rey Vargas 125lb, Leonardo Báez 126½lb. If this was a title contest, Báez would be ineligible to challenge any longer.
