Two of boxing’s most popular and colorful personalities, two-time world champion “El Feroz” Fernando Vargas and three-time world champion Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga, have agreed to face each other in a scheduled 12-round match fought at a catch weight of 162 pounds in what promises to be a knock-down, drag-out, fight-to-the-finish slugfest at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 8.

Tickets priced at $300, $150, $100 and $50 go on sale Monday at noon (July 16) online at ticketmaster.com, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers including Warehouse Music, Robinsons-May, Tower Records and Ritmo Latino locations. Tickets are also available at the STAPLES Center box office and the box office at TEAM LA at Universal CityWalk.

Leaders from two of the most successful boxing promotional firms in history—Don King from Don King Productions and Kathy Duva from Main Events—announced the fight and their joint promotion of the event in association with AEG and STAPLES Center, today at the downtown Los Angeles arena. The event will also be televised live domestically beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, at a suggested retail price of $44.95, distributed by SHOWTIME® PPV.

Vargas (26-4, 22 KOs) won his world titles at junior middleweight and is best known for his indomitable will and courageous heart as evidenced by the fact he knocked out his first 17 opponents—including former world champions Ike “Bazooka” Quartey and Raul Marquez.

The native of Oxnard, Calif., now 29, became the youngest junior middleweight world champion in boxing history at just 21 years and 5 days when he dethroned “Yory Boy” Campas to win the International Boxing Federation title on Dec. 12, 1998.

He is best remembered for two epic clashes—both of which hold the distinction of having been named Fight of the Year by the prestigious Boxing Writers Association of America—against then-undefeated Felix “Tito” Trinidad on Dec. 2, 2000, and “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya on Sept. 14, 2002.

Mayorga (27-6-1, 22 KOs) has captured the hearts and imaginations of boxing fans around the globe due to his full-tilt boxing style and penchant for mixing beer and cigarettes with his training regimen—not to mention the withering verbal assaults opponents endure during the weeks leading up to his matches.

Mayorga, 33, hails from Managua, Nicaragua. He burst upon the boxing world in 2002 in his first world title shot against then-World Boxing Association welterweight champion Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis. A virtual unknown at the time, Mayorga taunted his opponent by allowing him to punch him in the face repeatedly with his hands at his waist before sending the champion to the canvas with a thunderous assault in round five that left Lewis unfit to continue in the match.

Few could have predicted at the time that Mayorga would shock the world again when he took on BWAA 2002 Fighter of the Year Vernon “The Viper” Forrest, who held the World Boxing Council welterweight title when they met. Forrest appeared to be as perplexed as Lewis when the Nicaraguan bomber smothered him with a barrage of combinations that sent him to the canvas in the first round. Forrest lasted until just the third round before the referee waved off the beating.

Mayorga proved he was no fluke by agreeing to an immediate rematch with Forrest where he notched a majority-decision win.

Mayorga shares the common opponents of Trinidad and De La Hoya with Vargas.