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Source: Bryan Vasquez Facebook
Important news for boxing fans in Costa Rica: Super featherweight boxing star Bryan “Tiquito” Vasquez will not fight on May 23rd as originally scheduled. An unexpected turn of events has placed the Costa Rican fighter in a more exciting fight card that will be hosted at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 29th at 9:00 pm.
The fight will be televised on cable network Spike TV, which is becoming a major destination channel for fans of the Sweet Science. Here is the official announcement from the network:
An exciting junior lightweight battle between Javier Fortuna and Bryan Vasquez will now open the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Spike telecast on Friday, May 29 live from Barclays Center in Brooklyn beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Fortuna vs. Vasquez, which was originally scheduled to take place May 23, replaces the bout between Paulie Malignaggi and Danny O’Connor as Malignaggi suffered a severe cut above his eye in training camp. The 12-round brawl will lead into the highly anticipated contest between former world champions Amir Khan and Chris Algieri.
An amateur standout who participated in the first Pan American Junior Championships in 2003, the 25-year-old Fortuna (27-0-1, 20 KOs) owns victories over Abner Cotto, Miguel Zamudio and Patrick Hyland. The undefeated rising star out of La Romana, Dominican Republic holds four knockouts over his last six fights as he looks to put on another great show on May 29.
The 27-year-old Vasquez (35-1, 18 KOs) is quickly becoming known as the preeminent pugilist from Costa Rica. The San Jose-native is the winner of his last five fights, including a stoppage of Sergio Thompson in Dec. 2014. Vasquez does not shy from any competition and will not back down when he faces his toughest test to date in Javier Fortuna on Spike TV.
O’Connor will now fight in his hometown of Boston on Saturday, May 23 on the undercard of the PBC on NBC event from Boston University’s Agganis Arena.
Tiquito hopes to regain the World Boxing Association belt he lost at the scales last year. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star:
Vasquez initially lost in his defense of the title, and he literally went down without a fight. Vasquez did not even take the ring as his belt was stripped at the scales when he showed up three pounds heavier than required by the World Boxing Association’s super featherweight division bylaws. The fight organizers determined that the match should take place for the benefit of Mexican fans who showed up en masse to support Sergio “Yeyo” Thompson.
In the end, Vasquez won the fight but lost the belt. Tiquito is married to light middleweight boxer Hanna Gabriel Valle, a beautiful Afro Costa Rican blessed with striking looks and a powerful right hook.
Vasquez has mentioned that he hopes to see expat Ticos come see him fight at the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA. The Costa Rica diaspora is not sizable by any means, but the majority of Ticos living overseas are concentrated in a couple of New Jersey communities not far from Brooklyn.
