Jessie Vargas: record, next fight and profile →
Last week, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum was very enthusiastic when BoxingScene.com asked him about the possibility of making a fight between former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40KOs) and the newly crowned World Boxing Organization welterweight king Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10KOs).
Last Saturday night’s KO performance by Luis Ortiz in Washington, DC registered with HBO subscribers as an average of 740,000 viewers tuned in for the matchup with Tony Thompson. The fight peaked at 807,000 viewers. The viewership numbers marked a 20% increase from the last Ortiz appearance on HBO when in December of 2015 he knocked out Bryant Jennings in Verona, NY (616,000 viewers on average).
It looked like he’d been solved. Jessie Vargas was stunned and taking fire in the fourth round. As the round ended, Sadam Ali was fired up with momentum on his side. Ali didn’t win another round. In the best performance of his career, a fighter whose luck in decisions left many fans frustrated, showed a new layer of substance. Jessie Vargas might not ever be the best welterweight in the world but Saturday he showed the ability to adjust and the fire to finish.
In the immediate aftermath of Jesse Vargas (27-1, 10KOs) winning the vacant WBO welterweight title by upsetting Sadam Ali with a ninth round stoppage at the DC Armory in Washington DC this past Saturday night, his promoter - Bob Arum of Top Rank - spoke openly of Vargas facing the winner of the April 9th trilogy bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.
Jessie Vargas now holds the World Boxing Organization’s welterweight title. He’s hoping to defend it soon against the person who previously held it. That’s because the belt belonged to Timothy Bradley before. Bradley vacated it rather than have a fight with mandatory challenger Sadam Ali, opting instead for a more lucrative third pay-per-view clash with Manny Pacquiao that will take place on April 9.
by David P. Greisman - The first boxing card I covered live was Mike Tyson’s final bout, when he quit against Kevin McBride and I asked a question in the post-fight press conference that made him curse. It probably didn’t ever take much to make Tyson curse. Over the years I have been on press row nine times in Washington...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - As the crowd swelled at the DC Armory ahead of the Ortiz-Thompson fight, Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) and Sadam "World Kid" Ali (22-1, 13 KOs) squared off in the co-main event for the WBO Welterweight world championship.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - WBA Interim Heavyweight World Champion Luis 'King Kong' Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) continued his rapid descent up the heavyweight division, knocking Tony 'The Tiger' Thompson (40-7, 27 KOs) down twice before finishing him with a huge knockout in the sixth round.
In the past two years, two future Hall of Fame inductees have been in the corner of Jessie Vargas. First it was Roy Jones Jr., who worked with Vargas ahead of his fight against Antonio DeMarco in November 2014. Then it was Erik Morales, who trained Vargas before his clash with Timothy Bradley last June.
Washington DC - It may have been one of Jessie Vargas’ last attempt to prove that he belongs at the top of the welterweight division. Vargas was coming off a decision loss to Timothy Bradley where he stunned Bradley late in the 12th round. Referee Pat Russell stopped the fight with 5 seconds to go because he mistakenly thought he heard the final bell.