By Keith Idec
Erik Morales became Jessie Vargas’ trainer just about a month before his fight against Timothy Bradley on Saturday night.
That was more than enough time, according to Vargas, for Morales to make a meaningful impact on his preparation for what figures to be the most troublesome fight of Vargas’ six-year pro career. Bradley (31-1-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC), of Palm Springs, Calif., and Las Vegas’ Vargas (26-0, 9 KOs) are set to square off in a 12-round fight for the interim WBO welterweight title at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. (HBO; 9:45 p.m. ET).
“Preparation has been great,” Vargas said. “This camp has gone absolutely excellent, which I want to thank Erik for. He has had full control over it. I’ve said it from the beginning, this will be a Jessie Vargas training camp, in the Erik Morales style. Anything he says goes, just because he knows what’s best. That’s just the end of it. I want to have the conditioning that he had. I want to fight just as he did, but into my style as well. And it’s been coming along just that way, just as we thought it would. We’re feeling stronger than ever, faster, explosive.”
Former pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr. trained the 26-year-old Vargas for his previous fight – a unanimous-decision victory over Mexico’s Antonio DeMarco (31-5-1, 23 KOs) on Nov. 23 in Macau, China. Jones couldn’t commit to training Vargas for the Bradley bout due to his busy broadcasting and training schedule, which prompted Vargas to hire Morales, a Mexican legend who won world titles in four weight classes.
“I’ve worked so hard for it,” Vargas said. “I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for years and it’s here. So I know what it takes to get there. And having Erik, it just enlightens me more. ‘Hey, we need to work harder. I need to take you up to the mountains, to high elevations, and work up there.’ And he did. It worked out well. It’s given us great results.
“And I plan to give you a great fight, a 12-round fight of non-stop punches. That’s how ready I am. I will assure you that, from this side, we won’t stop throwing punches, without no problem. … I’m just going to come out Saturday, elevate my game, show you what I have, show you what Erik and my team have been working on and hopefully it’s a result of fans having a great matchup.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.