Jessie Vargas vs. Wale Omotoso on Bradley-Provodnikov card on March 16th

By Boxing News - 02/02/2013 - Comments

vargas43By Dan Ambrose: A bout pitting unbeaten welterweights Wale Omotoso (23-0, 19 KO’s) vs. Jessie Vargas (23-0, 9 KO’s) will be on the undercard of WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley’s first title defense against Ruslan Provodnikov on March 16th, according to Steve Kim. The fight card will be staged at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, and HBO will likely be televising it.

Omotoso, #12 IBF, hasn’t faced any real quality opposition yet, so this will be a step up for him in a big way. Omotoso’s best opponents on his resume are Lanardo Tyner and Irving Garcia. Omotoso beat Tyner by an 8 round decision, and his fight with Garcia was stopped in the 2nd round due to a cut that Garcia suffered on his forehead from a clash of heads in the round. Omotoso does have decent power, but not enough to stop the better opposition.

Vargas, #5 WBA, #9 WBC, has wins over Josesito Lopez, Tyner, and Vivian Harris. That’s pretty much it in terms of quality opposition on his resume. Vargas’ win over Lopez was highly controversial with a lot of boxing fans seeing it as a loss rather than a win.

Vargas isn’t a huge puncher, and he moves around a lot using his jab as his primary weapon. Vargas does throw combinations from time to time, but his main thing seems to be his jab and his clinching. He uses both a lot to control his opponents, and he’s not particularly interesting to watch.

Hopefully, Top Rank has some other fights on the card to interest boxing fans because I don’t see the Vargas vs. Omotoso fight as being an exciting fight unless you like watching jabbing, moving and clinching.

The Bradley vs. Provodnikov bout is an unusual one for Bradley because he had the opportunity to fight Lamont Peterson and Yuriorkis Gamboa, but instead he settled for this fight. It just makes you wonder about whether Bradley is looking for the best fights or the easiest ones.



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