By Ryan Burton
Jessie Vargas’ (29-2-2) first fight of 2019 didn’t start out the way that he had hoped. In the second round an accidental clash of heads against former champion Humberto Soto (69-10-2) opened up a nasty cut over the left eye of Vargas.
Vargas expressed his displeasure by hitting his gloves together. With a cut they bad their is always a chance can get dropped early and if it were to be stopped before 4 rounds are competed it would be ruled a no-contest under California rules.
The former two-division champion revealed that the cut altered his game plan and made him more aggressive for that very reason.
“I stepped up the pressure when I got cut. You never know do they are going to stop the fight,” Vargas told BoxingScene.com.
His plan worked perfectly as he began to wear down the veteran Soto and floored him in the 6th round. Soto would get up but didn’t last too much longer before the referee stopped the fight.
The fight was caught at a catchweight of 151 pounds. Vargas, who had never fought above the welterweight limit, tested the waters before he makes the move all the way up the 154 pound super welterweight limit.
After allowing some time for the cut to heal, Vargas said that his target is WBO super welterweight champion Jaime Munguía.
“We have to let this cut heal up and then hopefully we can get Munguía. Thst would be a great fight,” said Vargas.
This was Vargas’ first fight working with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. Vargas had a frustrating 20-8 with both of his fights ending in a draw. He fought Adrien Broner in April and Thomas Dulorme in October.
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