Vargas to Defend against Negrete

Junior featherweight world titleholder Rey Vargas will defend against Oscar Negrete on Dec. 2 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN on Thursday. The fight will serve as the HBO-televised co-feature to junior middleweight titleholder Miguel Cotto’s defense against Sadam Ali in what Cotto says will be his final fight.

Vargas (30-0, 22 KOs), 26, of Mexico, will be making the second defense of his 122-pound title. Negrete (17-0, 7 KOs), 30, a Colombia native fighting out of Rosemead, California, is moving up from bantamweight. He is coming off an eighth-round knockout of Sergio Frias on the June 30 edition of “Golden Boy Boxing” on ESPN.