Promoter Top Rank has a new main event for its October 30 show at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.

krikya360.com has learned that junior welterweights Jose Zepeda and Josue Vargas will square off in a 10-round bout that’ll headline an ESPN+ stream from New York that night. Zepeda (34-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC) and Vargas (19-1, 9 KOs) have replaced a main event that was supposed to feature WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr.

Long Island’s Smith (27-3, 21 KOs) was supposed to make the first defense of his WBO 175-pound championship against Russia’s Umar Salamov (26-1, 19 KOs). Smith, 32, withdrew from their 12-round fight early this week because he was hospitalized due to COVID-19.

The Smith-Salamov match will be rescheduled.

The 23-year-old Vargas, a Puerto Rican contender who resides in the Bronx, had been training to fight an unnamed opponent in a 10-rounder on the Smith-Salamov undercard. Zepeda will be a step up in competition for Vargas, a southpaw who has won 13 straight fights since he suffered a third-round disqualification defeat to Samuel Santana (then 7-11-3) in October 2016.

The 32-year-old Zepeda, a southpaw from La Puente, California, most recently out-pointed Hank Lundy in a 10-round match May 22 in Las Vegas. Zepeda defeated Philadelphia’s Lundy (31-9-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC) by the same margin, 98-92, on all three scorecards, though Zepeda didn’t look especially sharp against a 37-year-old opponent in a fight ESPN televised from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

His victory over Lundy represented Zepeda’s return from his unbelievably brutal battle versus Ivan Baranchyk last October 3 in Las Vegas. Zepeda survived four knockdowns and dropped Russia’s Baranchyk (20-3, 13 KOs) four times on his way to a vicious fifth-round knockout at MGM Grand Conference Center.

Zepeda-Baranchyk was voted “Fight of the Year” for 2020 by krikya360.com and numerous other outlets.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.