Arum: Vargas Earned His Way To Pacquiao PPV Opportunity

By Carlos Boogs

This coming Saturday night, WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10KOs) is viewed as a massive underdog when he steps in the ring with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Vargas returns from his March knockout victory over previously undefeated Sadam Ali to capture the vacant WBO welterweight title.

But two fights ago, Vargas was outboxed for eleven and a half rounds by Timothy Bradley, before he finally clipped Bradley on the chin and had him in serious trouble in the final minute of the twelfth round. The referee accidentally stopped the fight about ten seconds early - a mistake which Vargas believes robbed him of a knockout victory.

In reviewing Vargas' record, there is not exactly a murderers row of opponents and several of those wins were very close decisions. 

Most fans are also reminded that Pacquiao just dominated Bradley over twelve rounds in April.

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters, admits Vargas' resume of wins is a bit thin, but he believes the once-beaten fighter has done more than enough to earn the opportunity to face Pacquiao. Some would argue that Vargas deserves it more than Chris Algieri or Brandon Rios did - when both of those fighters received their Pacquiao paydays.  

"No murderers row of opponents but when he fought Bradley he had Bradley out on his feet and because the referee got mixed up he stopped the fight ten seconds too soon so who knows how that would have ended," Arum said.

"And he fought Sadam Ali to win the title and Sadam Ali is a terrific fighter – he was a member of the US Olympic Team, he was undefeated and certainly not a tomato can and he entered the fight a big favorite over Vargas and Vargas dominated him and eventually knocked him out.  I think that victory alone qualifies Vargas for top level of fighters and opponents for Manny."