Beltran vs Soto set for June 27 on HBO

Ray Beltran and Humberto Soto will fight for the now-vacant WBA "world" junior welterweight title on June 27, serving as the HBO co-feature at the StubHub Center to the Timothy Bradley Jr-Jessie Vargas main event, according to Mike Coppinger at Boxing Junkie. The belt was most recently held by Vargas, who is moving up to 147 to face Bradley.

This officially means that Beltran (30-7-1, 18 KO) is moving up in weight to 140, after failing to make 135 pounds for his recent TKO-2 win over Takahiro Ao in Las Vegas. Soto (65-8-2, 35 KO) was set to meet Frankie Gomez on May 9 on the Canelo-Kirkland card in Houston, but Gomez missed weight by several pounds and the fight was canceled.

Both Beltran and Soto are veterans of the game, at 33 and 35 respectively, and this won't be new territory for either man. Soto has held world titles at 130 and 135, and an interim belt at 126, while Beltran has had two shots at 135-pound world titles, a controversial draw against Ricky Burns and a loss to Terence Crawford, as well as the fight with Ao, which would have been a third chance.