#1 ranked Bruce Carrington could fight WBC ‘Champion in Recess’ Rey Vargas for the featherweight title if current 126-lb champion Stephen Fulton goes up to 130 to face WBC belt-holder O’Shaquie Foster for his strap. The World Boxing Council could order Carrington to fight Vargas for the WBC featherweight title if Fulton goes up to challenge Foster.
Fulton has shown zero interest in defending against the 27-year-old Top Rank-promoted ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs), feeling that he still hasn’t fought any notable fighters during his four-year professional career. It’s understandable why Fulton would feel this way, as Carrington has yet to face recognizable opposition.
The Ring reports that Carrington could face Rey Vargas (36-1-1, 22 KOs) for the WBC featherweight belt if champion Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) goes up to super featherweight to challenge Foster for his WBC belt.
Some fans feel this is another example of Top Rank’s Berlanga-esque strategy of matching their fighters against tomato cans to create pseudo stars and target vulnerable champions. In Carrington’s fight last Saturday night, he was matched against what many fans saw as a weak opponent, Enrique Vivas (23-4, 12 KOs), and he looked like 24k gold, destroying the little-known 2nd tier fighter by a third round knockout the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas
Espinoza Avoided?
What’s telling about the matchmaking is that Carrington is being positioned to fight for the WBC belt rather than the WBO strap held by Rafael Espinoza, who is seen by many as the #1 fighter in the 126-lb division.
Espinoza is light-years better than any of the current champions at featherweight, and now avoided like the plague after what he did to two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez.
Carrington has been repeatedly asked about why he’s not targeting Espinoza, but he says he has been. However, fans have their doubts because he openly says he wants Nick Ball and Fulton.
Segawa’s Impact
Carrington appears to have been matched in a regressive way since his near-loss against Sulaiman Segawa last September. The Ugandan Segawa (17-5-1, 5 KOs) fought well enough to deserve the victory, but the judges gave it to Carrington by a 10-round majority decision. I watched the fight, and I had Segawa winning 7-3. It wasn’t even close. Segawa dominated the 27-year-old prospect Carrington, showing that he’s on another level.
It wasn’t a big shock that the A-side fighter, Carrington, was given the victory, as he was a big favorite going in. He got exposed big time by Segawa. Since that fight, the opposition that Carrington has been matched against has been far, far below the Segawa-level, which suggests Top Rank didn’t want to take any chances of him getting beaten.
Vargas, 34, hasn’t fought in over a year since battling to a controversial 12-round draw against Nick Ball on March 8, 2024. Rey was later made champion in recess due to his inactivity related to an injury. He hasn’t won a fight in two years since beating Mark Magsayo on July 9, 2022, in San Antonio, Mexico.
Last Updated on 04/01/2025
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