He will defend against Franklin Manzanilla.
WBC super bantamweight titleholder Rey Vargas (32-0, 22 KOs) will return to the ring on February 9th for the first time since his competitive title third title defense against Azat Hovhannisyan last May. Shoulder surgery followed by a respiratory infection has caused his inactivity. The Mexican’s opponent will be Venezuelan fringe contender Franklin Manzanilla (18-4, 17 KOs) and the bout will serve as the co-main event to the DAZN broadcast card headlined by a junior lightweight title fight between Alberto Machado and Andrew Cancio.
Vargas first picked up his title and made himself known on the world stage in a competitively scored majority decision win on the road against Gavin McDonnell in the UK. The local fighter didn’t deserve the draw card he got in that contest, but that is par for the course in boxing. The 28 year old titleholder has since defended his title three times. All three bouts were against solid opposition in Ronny Rios, Oscar Negrete, and the aforementioned Hovhannisyan, but none of those guys are really on that top ten level.
Franklin Manzanilla isn’t either. The 30 year old South American is coming off a career changing win against former titleholder Julio Ceja in May, but that isn’t what it looks like on paper. The stoppage came on an injury to Ceja’s nose. Sure, Manzanilla caused it with punches and that is a fair way to win, but it isn’t replicable going forward. Otherwise Manzanilla has some pretty low level losses back home in Venezuela already. It is difficult seeing a path to victory here for him.
Given that the Machado-Cancio main event is pretty underwhelming as well, Golden Boy isn’t exactly coming out swinging here on DAZN. Here is to bigger fights coming together later in the year.
