By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Francisco Vargas’ promoters want him to take a very extensive break following the brutal beating he suffered against Miguel Berchelt two months ago.

In fact, if Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez gets to choose, Vargas won’t fight again until sometime in 2018. The 32-year-old Vargas (23-1-2, 17 KOs) has endured three consecutive bloody battles, and the former WBC world super featherweight champion needs a lot of time off to recuperate and allow the sensitive scar tissue around his eyes to heal as best it can.

“Vargas is gonna take some time off,” Gomez said recently. “He did back-to-back-to-back tough fights. But that’s what happens when you’re the champion. When you’re the world champion, they come after you. Everybody comes after you for big fights.

“I just think that Vargas doesn’t know any better. He doesn’t know how to fight any different. What we’re gonna do now is we’ll bring him back, give him a couple of tune-up fights. And obviously there’s always a rematch with Miura, there’s always a rematch with Salido. There’s all these fights that are intriguing fights. So we’re gonna take our time with him.”

Berchelt battered Vargas for much of their January 28 fight in Indio, California, before knocking him out in the 11th round at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Vargas’ loss to his fellow Mexican was his first fight following a brutal brawl with Orlando Salido, which ended in a draw June 4 in Carson, California.

His memorable battle with Salido occurred six months after Vargas overcame a fourth-round knockdown to stop Japan’s Takashi Miura in the ninth round of their November 2015 bout in Las Vegas. Vargas’ fantastic fights against Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs, 1 NC) and Miura (31-3-2, 24 KOs) won the Boxing Writers Association of America’s “Fight of the Year” awards for 2015 and 2016, respectively.

But after suffering such punishment during those two fights, Gomez tried to talk Vargas out of boxing Berchelt (31-1, 28 KOs) in a bout HBO televised January 28. It didn’t work, obviously, and Vargas paid a steep price.

Now Gomez wants to keep Vargas out of the ring as long as possible.

“It’s up to him,” Gomez said. “I don’t wanna see him fight until next year. But if he wants to come back in November or December, we can definitely do something.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.