By Dan Ambrose: The long awaited comeback of former IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas (26-5, 22 KO’s) will have to wait a little longer, as the 33-year-old Vargas is ill with a case of bronchitis and pneumonia and won’t be able to make his April 16th fight date against super middleweight Henry Buchanan. It might be for the best, though, because Vargas might have been asking for a beating in that fight by taking on a quality fighter like that at such a high weight.

Vargas has put on an incredible amount of weight during the past four years that he’s been put of the ring and having to strip off all that blubber is likely going to leave him weakened. Even under the best circumstance, Vargas, a junior middleweight during his prime, is going to have problems by fighting two divisions above his old weight class. Buchanan is a decent fighter and is a solid guy at super middleweight.

In contrast, Vargas has lost his last three fights and looked terrible in his last bout four years ago against Ricardo Mayorga in 2007. That fight took place at super middleweight and Vargas was only capable of fighting hard for the first five rounds. He can out of gas in the second half of the fight and ended up losing by a 12 round majority decision. Now four years older taking on a natural super middleweight, I think Vargas would have lost had he gone ahead for the April date. Vargas has lost his last three fights. His last victory was six years ago against Javier Castillejo in 2005.

Instead of wasting his time at super middleweight, where Vargas will likely get destroyed by guys like Andre Ward, Lucian Bute, Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, Vargas should take a little more time to strip off the flab on his frame and try his best to get back down to 154. That’s the only weight class I can see him having any success at, not that I can see him succeeding at this point.

Vargas didn’t look like the same fighter he once was after being stopped by Felix Trinidad in a 12th round knockout in December 2000. Vargas was later knocked out in the 11th round by Oscar De La Hoya in 2002. From there, Vargas’ once promising career took a huge downward slide with wins over lower level fighters and losses to Shane Mosley.