WBC Orders Interim Super Bantamweight Title Fight, While Rey Vargas Recovers From Left Hand Injury

Carlos ToroOctober 4, 2018, 3:30 pm

WBC super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas is out of action for a while and so, the governing body is creating an interim championship fight and already has picked out its two combatants.

During the annual WBC Convention, taking place in Kiev, Ukraine, the WBC has ordered Abigail Medina and Tomoki Kameda to fight for the interim title while Vargas recovers. The fight pits the two highest-ranked contenders in the WBC rankings (Medina is ranked No. 1 and Kameda is ranked No. 2) and the winner presumably becomes the mandatory challenger to Vargas’ title.

WBC Annual Convention; Kyiv Ukraine —-

WBC super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas suffered an injury; an interim championship match is ordered between Abigail Medina and Tomoko Kameda while Vargas is able to return.

— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) October 3, 2018

Vargas has held the WBC title since early 2017, making three successful title defenses with the last one taking place this past May with a unanimous decision victory over Azat Hovhannisyan. Vargas is currently recovering from a left hand injury.

Kameda was arguably the top Japanese bantamweight in the 2010s, holding the WBO title from 2013 to 2014. Kameda previously challenged Jamie McDonnell for the WBA bantamweight title twice, but on both occasions, Kameda lost by unanimous decision. After not fighting for a little more than a year, Kameda returned to action in 2016, fighting as a super bantamweight where he is riding a four-fight win streak.

Medina, the current European super bantamweight champion, has been riding a ten-fight win streak since suffering two straight losses in 2013. Medina sports a 19-3-2 record with 10 knockout victories and is competing for his first world title.