By: Sean Crose
The red hot Shakur Stevenson raised a few eyebrows some weeks back when he lost his WBC super featherweight title on the scales before squaring off with Robson Conceicao.
Underdog Conceicao could have picked up the title himself had he ended up beating Stevenson, but that didn’t happen, as Stevenson easily dominated the fight. With Stevenson subsequently declaring that he’s moving up to lightweight, the WBC had to set up a match for it’s super featherweight belt.
And that match has now been ordered, as Rey Vargas and O’Shaquie Foster have been instructed to square off for the WBC strap.
“The WBC Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve the petition from current WBC featherweight champion, Rey Vargas from Mexico, to fight for the vacant super featherweight title against mandatory contender of the division and WBC silver champion O´Shaquie Foster,” the WBC stated on its webpage on Monday.
“The WBC has ordered a free negotiations period for the Vargas vs Foster fight. The winner of this fight will be committed to make 2 mandatory defenses as per WBC rules and regulations.”
The organization made it a point to explain why Vargas was worthy of having his petition approved of.
“Undefeated Vargas was the WBC super-bantamweight from 2017-2019 and made 5 title defenses,” the WBC claimed. “He then moved up in weight and won the featherweight title just in his last fight defeating former champion Mark Magsayo.”
As for the 19-2 Foster, he had already lined himself up as the top contender at super featherweight for the WBC. It would strike many as being unfair if he had not been given the opportunity to fight for the belt. Of course, it could be argued things like fairness and rules rarely have anything to do with the sport of boxing, so it must be satisfying for Foster to get his shot.
The 36-0 Vargas currently holds the WBC featherweight title since besting Mark Mayago in July. As the WBC has made clear, he’s also been a junior featherweight world champion.
There has been talk of the undefeated Vargas squaring off with Leo Santa Cruz for a featherweight title unification (Santa Cruz is the WBA champ). With that bout apparently not happening, however it looks like Vargas will move up to take on Foster. Should he Defeat Foster, Vargas will become a three division world titlist – no small thing.