By Miguel Rivera
Thinking ahead, trainer Guillermo Becerril does not want former world champion Francisco 'Bandido' Vargas to enter the ring for the remainder of 2017.
He wants the fighter to stay on the shelf, take a much needed rest and properly heal his wounds - and then return with renewed vigor in 2018.
Vargas lost his WBC super featherweight title this past January, when he was stopped by big puncher Miguel Berchelt. It was a bloody fight, where Vargas took a a lot of punishment and suffered very severe cuts.
Besides the battle with Berchelt, Vargas had back to back wars with Orlando Salido and Takashi Miura - where he also took a lot of punishment and suffered severe cuts in two "Fight of The Year" showdowns.
"From my point of view, I think he should rest for the entire year, take a break, forget about boxing for a good time, rest, do anything other than boxing and starting next year take a look at what's out there for him in 2018," said Becerril to ESPN Deportes.
"(Vargas) has had tough fights, he was already saturated with a lot of action. Those divisions, lightweight, super featherweight, featherweight, are the tightest, there are a lot of tough fights, so I'd like him to come back well and analyze what's out there for him."
In the analysis after the fight, Becerril did not detract from what Berchelt did in the ring, because they already knew that he was a hard fighter, but he did say that there were a lot of things that weren't done on their end that hurt them in the contest.
"We give Berchelt credit. Berchelt got a good win, but we stopped doing a lot of things ourselves, a thousand things, and it was reflected in the fight. Vargas did not fight like he has in other times. He was not the 'Bandito' that we've seen in the past, so we analyzed things very well. We'll have to sit down and talk and see what is coming up, but first he needs to relax and rest," said the coach.
