Christian Medina will make the first defence of his WBO bantamweight world title against former IBF junior flyweight champion Adrian Curiel on Feb. 6, it was announced Saturday.

Originally teased for January 31, the fight moving back seven days makes sense because of a heavy schedule featuring world title fights and must-see matchups worldwide.

It was announced earlier in the day that Medina (26-4, 19 KOs) had signed a promotional contract with Matchroom, a development which will pique the mind of Ring and unified junior bantamweight world champion Jesse Rodriguez as he considers his options.

Medina-Curiel, a Mexican duel, will headline an ESPN Knockout/TV show in Jalisco. ESPN Knockout's Salvador Rodriguez was first to report the matchup as the 25-year-old champion is set to return home.

It comes just nine months after his last outing there, needing two rounds to stop 16-9 pro Juan Ramirez Marquez on a Matchroom show shared by Curiel.

Curiel outpointed 8-2-2 pro Johan Rubio over 10 rounds at a career-high weight, 119 pounds, during his only appearance of the year. Medina returned to Japan on September 14 and delivered a vicious fourth-round knockout win over Yoshiki Takei (11-1, 9 KOs) to rip away a the champion's crown in style.

Former IBF bantamweight champion Ryosuke Nishida inflicted Medina's last defeat, a 12-round decision, in August 2023 during their title eliminator from Osaka, Japan.

Medina's KO of Takei gave Mexico a sixth world champion hours after national icon Canelo Alvarez lost his undisputed crown to Terence Crawford.

Curiel's 108-pound championship reign didn't last long, after a 10th-round knockout loss to Sivenathi Nontshinga, who he'd beaten for the belt, on February 2024.

Having moved up to flyweight, Curiel (26-6-1, 5 KOs) has won and gone 10 rounds in his last two outings, though this is a very different proposition: only his second appearance in an ever-changing class against The Ring's No. 2 bantamweight.