By Edward Chaykovsky

Negotiations to make an HBO televised welterweight fight between former 140-pound champion Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9KOs) and undefeated Sadam Ali have fallen apart.

Vargas rejected the HBO televised bout due to venue concerns, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Ali's promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, was looking to stage the bout in New York - a term which didn't sit well with Vargas.

"We had some concerns about getting a fair decision in New York," Vargas said to the paper. "We'll fight Sadam Ali, but not in his hometown."

Cameron Dunkin, Vargas' manager, told the paper he was concerned as well - after examining the scorecards for Ali's last fight when he defeated Francisco Santana at Madison Square Garden on April 25.

The scores were 100-90, 97-93 and 97-93 - but Dunkin saw it as being much closer. Dunkin is discussing Vargas' options with Top Rank president Todd duBoef.

"There's no way the Santana fight was that wide," Dunkin said. "It was a 6-to-4 fight. That told me all I needed to know about Jessie fighting this guy in New York."

"We're looking at everything. We're wide open, and Todd and I are trying to come up with something for Jessie. But it has to make sense for Jessie for us to take a fight, and fighting Ali in New York doesn't make sense. Todd understood that."