Jessie Vargas wants Miguel Cotto or Danny Garcia

By Boxing News - 03/21/2016 - Comments

1-AliVargas2_HoganphotosBy Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) wants to cash in on him winning the vacant WBO 147lb title earlier this month by getting a fight against Miguel Cotto or WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs).

Cotto is looking for an opponent for his next fight in June. However, if he was interested in fighting Vargas, I think he would have already had his promoters at Roc Nation Sports contact him by now, don’t you think? Cotto must have other plans for his next fight rather than fighting the little known Vargas, who some boxing fans see as little more than a paper champion.

Vargas has the WBO title, which has been switching hands between Top Rank fighters since 2009. Floyd Mayweather Jr. briefly interrupted Top Rank’s stranglehold over the WBO belt in 2015, when he beat Manny Pacquiao to capture the title. However, the next thing you know it, the WBO stripped Mayweather of the title, and now the Top Rank promoted Vargas has the belt.

The Top Rank promoted Vargas, 26, thinks both of those fights are possible. Garcia recently expressed interest in fighting Vargas in a unification fight, and this has Vargas’ hopes all up. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that Garcia talks a lot but he’s not the one that makes his fights. He’s with Al Haymon, and he’s the guy that selects his opposition. I don’t think Haymon is even going to consider someone like Vargas as a possible opponent for Garcia.

Even if there wasn’t the rift between Top Rank and Haymon blocking a Vargas-Garcia fight, it’s just not a fight that would really do much for Garcia. Vargas isn’t a big name, and he was recently soundly beaten by Tim Bradley. Sure, Vargas beat Sadam Ali earlier this month to win the vacant WBO 147lb title, but Ali isn’t a big name either.

Vargas beat a simple contender. The victory proved nothing. Vargas is still the same fighter that Bradley easily beat. There is no improvement in his game as far as I can see. Vargas would still likely get taken apart if he fought a good contender like Errol Spence Jr. That’s another fight that will probably never happen because Spence is with Haymon as well.

“I’m glad he’s open to fighting me because this means it’g oing to make the fight more easily made,” Vargas said to Fighthype about a fight against Danny Garcia. “It’s a fight that I want without a doubt. He’s looking to come back in June or July. I’m looking to come back in June or July. Everyone knows my first priority is Bradley. I’m not going to wait until next year to fight. I mean, until late this year. I’m going to get another fight in June or July, and Danny Garcia is coming back the same date. So that’s a possible fight right there. One fighter I’m interested in and that’s Miguel Cotto. If he’s interested in coming down. It’s a fight that I would love. I want to be among the best. I want to beat the best. So maybe Cotto would be my #1 on my list. If he would like to fight, and we can give the fans a great fight. We should sit down and talk,” said Vargas.

I don’t think Cotto is going to bother fighting Vargas. There’s no money in that fight, and Cotto likely will be looking for a PPV worthy opponent. Can you imagine Cotto fighting Vargas on HBO PPV? It would be a fight that would be lucky if it even brought 5,000 PPV buys. That’s just not a big fight.

I hope Vargas doesn’t hold his breath waiting for Cotto to call him to arrange a fight, because I don’t see it happening in this lifetime. The same with Danny Garcia. I know he likes to talk, but I don’t see Garcia fighting Vargas. If Garcia is going to fight any of the 147lb champions in a unification fight, it’s going to probably be IBF champion Kell Brook. Even with that fight, it’ll likely need to take place in the United Stated rather than in the UK where Brook lives. Garcia isn’t going to risk losing his title to questionable judging by taking the fight overseas to Brook’s home country.



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