Victor Morales and Luis Nuñez will square off on March 16, Sampson Lewkowicz confirmed to The Ring on Monday afternoon.

The 12-round featherweight bout will take place at the Chelsea Ballroom at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada and will precede the main event bout between lightweight contenders William Zepeda and Maxi Hughes.

Both fights will stream live on DAZN.

“This is a WBA final elimination bout, approved by (President) Gilberto Mendoza,” Lewkowicz, who promotes Nuñez, told The Ring. “I think this fight could steal the show. These are excellent fighters with similar records. Logic would say that this is an even fight. No one is the favorite going into this fight. Both have 19 victories, but the difference is one has more knockouts than the other.”

Morales and Nunez are ranked No. 6 and 7, respectively, by the WBA at 126-pounds. At the moment, the world title belt is vacant and will be up for grabs when Otabek Kholmatov faces Raymond Ford on March 2.

The clash between Morales and Nuñez is a compelling one. Both are unbeaten and defeated modest opposition up until this point in their careers.

Morales (19-0-1, 9 knockouts), who resides in Vancouver, Washington, defeated Edwin Palomares by unanimous decision in his last bout on September 16. In his previous fight on April 29, Morales scored a second round knockout win over Diego De La Hoya.

The 26-year-old has won his last four bouts since a split-decision draw against Rudy Garcia and has fought under the Golden Boy Promotions banner over the last several years.

Nuñez is originally from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, and currently resides in the New York City area. Nuñez is managed by Antonio Tineo, Sr.

In his last bout on April 8, Nuñez defeated Christian Olivo Barreda by unanimous decision. About five months prior, Nuñez stopped Renson Robles in the fifth round.

Between September 2021 and May 2022, Nuñez defeated three unbeaten fighters (Jayvon Garnett, Carlos Arrieta, and Jonathan Fierro).

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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