By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

It’s fight night at the Silver Spurs Arena as WBO Junior Featherweight Champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., a veteran of 13 fights in Kissimmee, meets Ivan “Chocko” Hernandez in a 12-round championship bout in an event billed as “The Rising Son Returns.”

Vazquez, 26, from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, brings a 19-0-1 record with 16 knockouts into tonight’s fight. He won the junior featherweight title by knocking out Marvin Sonsona of the Philippines in four rounds in February. He successfully defended the title in May.

Hernandez, from Ensenada, Mexico, is ranked No. 10 and is 27-4-1 with 17 knockouts.

The Osceola Board of County Commissioners Tuesday proclaimed Oct. 12 as “Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. Day.”

Vazquez Jr. presented five local students with scholarships at an Oct. 5 Osceola County School Board meeting.

Vazquez Jr. provided members of the U.S. armed services at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, the U.S. Southern Command in Miami and the Kings Bay, Ga., submarine base with tickets.

The main event will begin at approximately 10 p.m.

The undercard, which begins at 9 p.m., includes a fight between McJoe Arroyo, the 2008 Puerto Rican Olympian, against Israel “Filipino” Rojas, of Sonora, Mexico.

Tickets for the fight are priced at $202, $102, $52 and $27. They are available at the Silver Spurs Arena box office and online at ticketmaster.com.

The fight will be broadcast live on-pay-per-view beginning at 9 p.m. at a suggested retail price of $34.95.