Jessie Vargas wants Cotto, Marquez and Danny Garcia

By Boxing News - 03/16/2016 - Comments

1-AliVargas3_HoganphotosBy Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) is hoping to use his new WBO title victory over Sadam Ali to get a big name to fight him for his next fight. The 26-year-old Vargas specifically wants to fight Tim Bradley, Miguel Cotto, Danny Garcia or Juan Manuel Marquez. Vargas feels that if he beats someone like the 42-year-old Mexican warrior Marquez, he’ll become the new dog in town.

Marquez, Cotto, Garcia and Bradley would be doing Vargas a huge favor if they agreed to fight him. There’s no real upside for any of them to fight Vargas because he’s not a big name despite some of his fights being televised on HBO.

“I would like to fight in Vegas, to be honest. It would mean a lot. He’s a legendary fighter. Beating a name like Juan Manuel Marquez automatically gives you the respect from the fans,” said Vargas to Fighthype. “He would pass the torch to me. I’m open to give him the opportunity. It lets everyone know who the new dog. Cotto, Garcia and Marquez,” said Vargas when asked who he wants to fight.

I think Vargas needs to lower his sights to a lesser named fighter that is more fitting for him and where he’s at. I don’t think he’s going to get any of the names that he wants. You can argue that Vargas being with Top Rank will likely keep him from ever fighting the likes of Danny Garcia. That name should probably be removed from Vargas’ list because he’s just going to drive himself crazy if he thinks he can get a fight against the Al Haymon-managed Garcia. It’s just not probable. As for the 35-year-old Cotto, he’s looking to get big names with the limited number of fights that he has left in his career. He’s not going to face a no name like Vargas to do him a favor. I don’t see that happening ever. Cotto won’t want to waste time fighting a spoiler type fighter like Vargas, because he has the wrong fighting style, and he doesn’t have the name to get someone like Cotto.

Marquez is interested in taking a tune-up for his next fight if he does come back. He’s not going to fight Vargas in a tune-up, and I don’t think he wants to waste one of his final fights of his career fighting a little known guy who doesn’t bring in big ratings like Vargas.

There’s no way that Marquez can fight Vargas on HBO PPV, because no one would likely pay to see a fight like that. If Marquez is going to fight anybody, he’ll look for an easy tune-up in the summer, and then look to fight Cotto near the end of the year if his injured knee holds up on him.

Vargas should focus on trying to get a rematch against Bradley, or a fight against Terence Crawford. They’re all with Top Rank, so all Vargas needs to do is lean on his 84-year-old promoter Bob Arum to get him to make one or both of those fights. I can’t see Vargas beating Crawford or Bradley, but he’ll find that out for himself if Arum matches him up against them. Bradley already beat Vargas in 2015. I’m not sure that a rematch would bring in good ratings for HBO. They might turn the fight down if Arum offers it to them.

All the guys that Vargas wants to fight are clearly too popular for him. Unless they were feeling charitable, there would be no reason for them to fight him. We’re talking about a huge power imbalance in a fight between Vargas and the likes of Cotto, Marquez, Bradley or Danny Garcia. Vargas doesn’t have the name cache to get the guys that he wants to fight.

Instead of aiming for fighters that out of his league in terms of popularity, Vargas should look to fight guys that are in his league. I think the following contenders would be perfect for Vargas: Chris Algieri, Jeff Horn, and Bradley Skeete. Those would be perfect names for Vargas, because those are guys that would likely readily agree to fight him and they wouldn’t beat him like the fighters that he wants to fight would. I think Cotto, Danny Garcia, Bradley and even Marquez would all beat Vargas. He’s just not that great of a fighter.



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