By Francisco Salazar

Talk about a crossroads bout with a lot on the line.

Former world titleholder Tomas Rojas will face fringe contender Edivaldo Ortega tonight, Zanfer Promotions matchmaker and liaison Sean Gibbons confirmed to BoxingScene.com Friday night.

The 10 round featherweight bout will take place at the Gimnasio Universidad in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The Rojas-Ortega bout will precede the 10 round main event bout between junior middleweights Jorge ‘Maromerito’ Paez (40-9-2, 24 knockouts) and Jose Carlos Paz (20-6-1, 12 KOs) of Argentina.

Both fights will air on beIN Sports en Espanol (11 p.m. ET/ 8 p.m. PT).

Rojas (49-15-1, 33 KOs) last fought on June 17, stopping overmatched Jose Cifuentes in the fifth round. He was coming off a close unanimous decision loss to Cristian Mijares on Apr. 8, a fight many boxing scribes thought Rojas did enough to win.

The 37-year-old Rojas, who made his pro debut at the age of 16, won the WBC junior bantamweight title in September of 2010 by defeating Kohei Kono by unanimous decision.

Rojas is ranked number six by the WBC.

Ortega (24-1-1, 11 KOs) has not fought since Dec. 3, when he lost a 10 round unanimous decision to unbeaten Eduardo Ramirez.

Ortega, who has fought 10 years as a pro, will be moving up from 122 pounds.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing