Former junior featherweight world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux is moving down in weight for a title opportunity.
Rigondeaux will move down to bantamweight for the first time in his career to face Liborio Solis for a vacant secondary world title on Dec. 21 (Fox and Fox Deportes, 8 p.m. ET), Premier Boxing Champions announced on Thursday.
The fight will serve as the co-feature to the previously announced rematch between junior middleweight titlist Tony Harrison and former titlist Jermell Charlo at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
The opener of the tripleheader will see blue-chip heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba take on experienced brawler Iago Kiladze in a 10-round fight.
“In addition to the main event, one of boxing’s most skilled fighters, Guillermo Rigondeaux, will look to become a two-division world champion against a battle-tested former champion in Liborio Solis,” said Tom Brown of TGB Promotions, which is promoting the card. “Plus, hard-hitting phenom Efe Ajagba hopes to pass another test with flying colors against Iago Kiladze.”
The southpaw Rigondeaux (19-1, 13 KOs), 39, a two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist fighting out of Miami, unified junior featherweight world titles when he outpointed Nonito Donaire in 2013 and did not lose until he went up two weight divisions to challenge then-junior lightweight titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko for his 130-pound belt in December 2017 in the first fight ever between two-time Olympic gold medalists. Lomachenko dominated and made Rigondeaux quit on his stool after the sixth round.
After taking a year off, Rigondeaux returned in January and has won two fights in a row, a first-round knockout of Giovanni Delgado and an eighth-round knockout of former world titlist Julio Ceja on June 23.
Former junior bantamweight world titlist Solis (30-5-1, 14 KOs), 37, a Venezuela native fighting out of Panama, has won five fights in a row since a loss and a no decision in two bantamweight world title bouts with Jamie McDonnell in 2016 and 2017.
Ajagba (11-0, 9 KOs), 25, a 2016 Nigerian Olympian fighting out of Houston, was supposed to fight on Oct. 26 but withdrew from a bout with Jack Mulowayi because of bad back. Now that he is feeling better he will face Kiladze (26-4-1, 18 KOs). The 33-year-old Kiladze, a native of the Republic of Georgia fighting out of Los Angeles, is 0-3-1 in his last four fights but against quality opposition, including contenders Adam Kownacki, Joe Joyce and Michael Hunter. He is coming off an eight-round draw with undefeated prospect Robert Alonso in May.