Jessie Vargas still wants Tim Bradley rematch

By Boxing News - 11/09/2015 - Comments

vargas986By Dan Ambrose: #5 WBO Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) is upset about WBO 147lb champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) not saying anything about wanting to give him a rematch so that he can try and avenge his 12 round unanimous decision loss to him last June.

Vargas, 26, says that Bradley had said something about wanting to give him a rematch after their fight in the summer, but since then, Bradley has been quiet about wanting to fight him a second time. Vargas was at Bradley’s post-fight press conference last Saturday night after his win over Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs).

Vargas asked Bradley for a rematch, but he wasn’t given a green light by him that he’d be getting one.

You can’t blame Bradley for showing no interest in a second fight against Vargas, because Bradley has a chance for a big money fight against either Manny Pacquiao or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for his next fight.

Bradley’s promoter Bob Arum says there’s a chance that Bradley could get one of those two fights. If not, then Bradley has a mandatory defense against his #1 WBO challenger Sadam Ali that he needs to make next. That’s not a great fight, but Bradley will need to get it out of the way if he wants to keep his WBO 147lb. title.

“It’s [expletive] bull [expletive],” Vargas said via esnewsreporting.com about Bradley not saying he’ll give him a rematch. “He [Bradley] just says, ‘Oh, I let my wife handle my business,’ but why did he agree to a rematch live on HBO? He has nothing to say.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQDGeYu0ljc

Bradley defeated Vargas by a 12 round decision by the scores of 115-112, 116-112 and 117-111. The fight was one-sided until the 12th round, when Vargas hurt Bradley with a big right hand. Bradley then held on and moved around the ring until referee Pat Russell made a mistake in halting the fight early with 10 seconds to go after mistakenly thinking that he’d heard the bell to end the fight.

Arum said this past week that the loser of the Bradley-Rios fight could face Vargas. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen now that Rios has announced his retirement. It would have been a good fight if Rios came into it in shape, but I don’t see him taking the fight now unless Arum lures him into it by offering him a big payday of $500,000 to $800,000 to take it. As bad as Rios looked against Bradley, I doubt that HBO would be willing to pay to put on a Rios vs. Vargas fight now. Vargas looked terrible against Bradley too, and I can’t see HBO wanting to pay to see either of these guys fight right now.

“He gave his word and look at him,” Vargas said about Bradley. “He can’t say ‘Oh, I’ll give you the rematch’ now, ‘because he knows what would happen. I’d knock him out. I knock him out in a rematch. I’d finish what I started and he knows it. It’s why he stays quiet like a bit**!”

If Vargas wants a rematch against Bradley, he’s going to need to talk to his promoter Bob Arum and try and convince him to make that fight happen. Bradley’s manager/wife isn’t going to likely be too excited at taking a rematch against Vargas rather than looking for a bigger money fight against Canelo or Pacquiao. If they can’t get either of those fights, then Bradley definitely won’t be letting his WBO title get stripped from him by the World Boxing Organization by him steering around Sadam Ali to fight Vargas.



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