Jessie Vargas: Sadam Ali doesn’t have the experience I have

By Boxing News - 02/13/2016 - Comments

bradley77777By Tim Fletcher: Former WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) may be coming off of a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision defeat in his last fight to former WBO 147lb champion Tim Bradley last June, but he’s now about to get another shot at a title in his fight against #1 WBO Sadam Ali (22-0. 13 KOs) for the now vacant WBO welterweight title on March 5 at the DC Armory, in Washington, District of Columbia.

The Ali-Vargas fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing in the co-feature bout on the Luis Ortiz vs. Tony Thompson card.

Vargas, 26, is going to need to up his work rate if he wants to beat Ali, because he didn’t throw enough punches in his last fight against Bradley. Vargas was throwing a lot of single shots and getting outworked by Bradley in the fight.

Ali, 27, is capable of throwing a lot of punches and being the busier fighter by a wide margin. Vargas is going to have to bring it this time instead of spending so much time standing around and trying not to get hit.

Vargas didn’t look during his time as the WBA 140lb champion. He won a controversial 12 round decision over Khabib Allakhverdiev to win the WBA light welterweight title in April 2014. Vargas then won a highly questionable decision over Anton Novikov in August 2014 in a fight that boxing fans largely saw Novikov winning. Vargas then struggled to beat former WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco by a 12 round decision in November 2014. Based off those performances, it was no wonder that Vargas was so easily beaten by Bradley.

“He doesn’t have the experience I have,” said Vargas by RingTV.com. “I’ve been in there with world-class fighters in the beginning of my career. I’ve beaten several undefeated records already and I’m planning to do the same March 5th. He’s never had to really dig deep. I’m not going to stop pushing from beginning to end. I’ve conditioned myself. I’ve prepared myself for that fight to come in busy basically and not leave it up to the judges, just win a clear, decisive fight. And to be honest, like I said, my goal is to win by a KO.”

Vargas has experience, but it’s not against great fighters. The best guy that Vargas beat was Bradley, and he lost badly to him. Vargas only had one good round in that fight and that was in the 12th, when he was able to hurt Bradley with a right hand. Even after hurting him, Vargas was too sloppy and limited to take advantage of what he’d done.

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“He’s not on my level,” Vargas said. “And I’m here to show this on fight day. I’m here to prove that he’s not on my level. Of course I’m saying it but I’m going to prove it that night as well. It’s just two different breeds.”

If Vargas can’t win this fight, then he needs to think seriously about moving back down to the light welterweight division, because he doesn’t appear to have the punching power to go far in the welterweight division.



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