A crowd favorite and a proud villain will grace the undercard of Jaime Munguia’s next fight.
Top Rank has confirmed the placement of Emiliano Vargas and Andres Cortes in separate undercard bouts on Sept. 20. Both boxers will appear on the ESPN telecast live from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Cortes (22-0, 12 knockouts) will face the Philippines’ Charley Suarez (17-0, 9 KOs) in a ten-round junior lightweight clash. The bout will serve as the evening’s co-feature. Opening the tripleheader, Vargas (11-0, 9 KOs) will face journeyman Larry Fryers (13-6-1, 5 KOs) in an eight-round junior welterweight battle.
Cortes is coming off his most notable win to date, though perhaps almost his most disputed as well. The unbeaten North Las Vegas native edged Abraham Nova (23-2, 16 KOs) in a June 24 disputed points win in Las Vegas. With the win came the expectation of a title shot soon to follow.
That dream remains in place, though Cortes wisely chose activity while building towards that moment.
“Ever since the Nova fight, I’ve been working on my craft in the gym,” insisted Cortes, who fights for the third time this year. “I’m showing the world my full arsenal on September 20. I want a world title shot soon, and I need to earn it with a devastating performance over Suarez.”
Vargas lands his fourth fight of 2024, following a six-fight 2023 campaign. His bout versus Fryers will mark his fourth career appearance at Desert Diamond Arena. The second-generation boxer—his father Fernando was a former two-time 154-pound titlist—has proven to be a huge crowd favorite.
In his most recent outing Vargas tore through Jose Zaragoza inside one round on June 29 in Miami Beach.
Headlining the show, Tijuana’s Munguia (43-1, 34 KOs) faces Canada’s Erik Bazinyan (32-0-1, 23 KOs) in a 12-round super middleweight contest.
Undercard action, streaming live and exclusively on ESPN+, includes the following bouts:
2020 Olympic Silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. (10-0, 10 KOs) meets Philadelphia’s Joey Dawejko (28-11-4, 16 KOs) in a scheduled eight-round heavyweight affair.
Art Barrera Jr. (6-0, 4 KOs) faces Jose Belloso (5-4, 5 KOs) in a six-round welterweight outing.
DJ Zamora (13-0, 9 KOs) enters his second fight with Top Rank in an eight-round clash.
Los Angeles’ Steven Navarro (3-0, 2 KOs) takes on Oscar Arroyo (3-2, 2 KOs) in a six-round junior bantamweight contest.
Rising junior featherweight Sebastian Hernandez (16-0, 15 KOs) and former secondary titlist Yonfrez Parejo (24-6-1, 12 KOs) collide in an eight-round junior featherweight bout.