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After a 13-month layoff, former welterweight world titleholder Jessie Vargas is returning to the ring. Vargas will square off with Aaron Herrera in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Dec. 15 (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes, 10 p.m. ET) at the Pioneer Event Center in Lancaster, California, promoter Tom Brown of TGB Promotions announced on Friday. Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs), 28, of Las Vegas, has not boxed since Manny Pacquiao knocked him down and rolled to a one-sided decision victory to take his 147-pound world title in November 2016 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Since that fight, Vargas' promotional contract with Top Rank expired. He has not signed with a promoter, but he has aligned himself with adviser and PBC creator Al Haymon, who works closely with Brown. "Jesse Vargas is one of the toughest welterweights in the sport. He always comes to fight and doesn't disappoint,'' Brown said. "His match against Herrera should provide the kind of action and entertainment that his fans have come to expect from him." Haymon works with many of the world's top welterweights, and Vargas, the heavy favorite, figures to fit into the mix with any of those fighters, including unified titleholder Keith Thurman, titlist Errol Spence Jr. and former titleholders Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Lamont Peterson down the road. But first up is the fight with Herrera as Vargas shakes off the rust of the layoff. "Every fighter is dangerous, and if I give Herrera the chance, he'll knock my head off," said Vargas, also a former junior welterweight world titleholder. "But I come into every fight with bad intentions, and I'm in a position where I know exactly what it takes to get where I want to go. I have a lot of opportunities ahead of me, but first, I have to show the fans that I'm back and look exciting while doing that. Herrera is going to give me his best, but I feel that I have the speed, the experience and the game plan to overcome anything he brings to the table." Herrera (33-7-1, 22 KOs), 28, of Mexico, has lost when he has stepped up to face a world-class opponent. In June, he got knocked out in the seventh round by former lightweight world titlist Brandon Rios, who ended a 10-month retirement. Herrera rebounded for a win a month later against a novice opponent. "I'm going against a really good fighter, but he doesn't punch very hard," Herrera said of Vargas. "I will go bombs away from the first round. He can't hurt me. I'm confident I will win this fight. This is a great opportunity for me. I've got to start faster than I did against Brandon Rios and I can't take anything for granted. The fans will get a great fight and definitely be winners on fight night." The card is also slated to include three other televised fights: -- Diego Chaves (26-2-1, 22 KOs), 31, of Argentina, who has losses to Thurman and Rios and a draw with Timothy Bradley Jr., will face Jamal James (21-1, 9 KOs), 29, of Minneapolis, in the 10-round welterweight co-feature. -- Junior welterweights John Molina Jr. (29-7, 23 KOs) 34, of Covina, California, and Ivan Redkach (20-3-1, 16 KOs) will meet in a 10-rounder. They're both coming off losses and in dire need of a victory to remain viable for bigger fights. Molina got knocked out in a one-sided eight-round destruction by then-junior welterweight world champion Terence Crawford last December. Redkach, 31, a Ukraine native living in Los Angeles, has lost two of his past three, including a 10-round split decision to former junior lightweight titlist Argenis Mendez in May. -- Unbeaten featherweight prospects Stephen Fulton (11-0, 5 KOs), 23, of Philadelphia, and Adam Lopez (8-0, 3 KOs), 21, of Glendale, California, will battle in an eight-rounder.
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