Bare Knuckle Boxing adds two Vargas brothers to stable

Apr 15, 2026 • 3:01 PM ET

The fighting Vargas family, from left to right: Amado, Emiliano, Fernando Snr. and Fernando Jnr.

Bare Knuckle Boxing is expanding beyond the recruitment of veteran fighters to pluck in-their-prime talents by adding Fernando Vargas Jnr and his unbeaten brother, Amado Vargas, to the roster, BoxingScene has learned.

Less than a year removed from meeting Ireland’s junior-middleweight Callum Walsh in the co-main event to the Terence Crawford-Canelo Alvarez megafight at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, Vargas Jnr 17-1 (15 KOs) joins his 25-year-old junior-lightweight brother, Amado Vargas 13-0 (6 KOs), to give BKB both an injection of youth and a social-media boost.

“The growth of BKB over the past 12 months has been immense. We’ve signed some of the greatest legends in combat sports. Now, we’re seeing undefeated prospects with world title potential in gloved boxing transition to bare knuckle in their prime – and we’re only going to see more of this,” BKB Bare Knuckle founder Mike Vazquez said in a prepared statement. “I can’t wait to see the Vargas brothers in the trigon.”

The sons of former world champion Fernando Vargas and brothers to Top Rank’s unbeaten 2025 prospect of the year Emiliano Vargas, Fernando Jnr and Amado join a BKB stable that includes former welterweight champion and ProBoxTV analyst Paulie Malignaggi, and recent signees Yuriorkis Gamboa, Lee Selby and Victor Ortiz.

By landing Southern California’s Vargas brothers, who have been featured in a family documentary and have nearly a half-million combined followers on Instagram, a BKB executive said the promotion’s popularity among both combat and everyday sports fans will continue to emerge.

“Signing both Fernando Jnr and Amado is a major addition to our roster,” BKB CEO David Tetreault said. “These are two athletes in their physical prime, hungry for success – and they see BKB as the perfect opportunity to achieve this. BKB is going mainstream and the Vargas brothers will play a huge part in driving us there.”

Fernando Vargas Jnr rode a career-opening 11-fight knockout streak toward the Walsh fight, and Amado, a decorated amateur, has only been past the fourth round in four of his bouts, gaining a 2024 knockout of Sean Garcia, brother of WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia.

See all interviews

Lance Pugmire has been a full-time boxing writer for nearly 20 years, serving now as BoxingScene’s U.S. Senior Writer and assistant producer for ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” Pugmire capped a near 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times (sports investigations, NHL/MLB beat work, law enforcement/courts and boxing/UFC) to join The Athletic, and then USA Today. Pugmire’s stint at The Times started with the first Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight and the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jnr then-record pay-per-view, leading through a slew of ringside assignments at major bouts, including Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Canelo and the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. Lance’s appreciation for boxing is rooted in his admiration and appreciation for the fighters, gladiators who have proven to be the most forthcoming and candid of all the athletes he has interviewed over a career dating to 1990. Lance was honored to be named the 2022 winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence and he’s collected many BWAA writing awards in categories ranging from breaking news to deep-dive long features.