By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBA Junior Welterweight Champion Jessie Vargas of Los Angeles, will be taking on former two-division world titleholder Timothy Bradley of Palm Springs, California at the StubHub Center in Carson, California this Saturday, June 27th. The 12-round bout can be seen live in Canada and the U.S. on HBO while fans in the UK can tune in live for all of the action on BoxNation. The fight is for the vacant interim WBO world title. Vargas is moving up in weight from the 140 lb to 147 lb division, so his junior welterweight title won’t be on the line.
Bradley is definitely the toughest opponent Vargas has entered the ring against so far in his career while Bradley has already taken on top-notch boxers such as Nate Campbell, Lamont Peterson, Kendall Holt, Edner Cherry, Junior Witter, Devon Alexander, Ruslan Provodnikov, Juan Manuel Marquez, Diego Chaves and Manny Pacquiao twice. The 31-year-old Bradley will climb into the ring with an impressive mark of 31-1-1 with 12 Kos while the year-old Vargas is perfect at 26-0 with nine Kos to his name.
Bradley may not have overwhelming power in his punches, but he throws a lot of them and generally tries to initiate the action. However, he can stop just about anybody if he lands flush on the chin or with an accumulation of blows. Bradley’s last contest took place in December against the rugged Diego Chaves of Argentina and fought his way to a controversial draw. He lost his first pro outing in April of last year when Pacquiao beat him by a unanimous decision in a rematch. Bradley had won their first encounter, quite controversially, by a split decision.
Surprisingly, Bradley hasn’t won a fight convincingly since stopping Joel Casamayor in the eighth round back in 2011. Many fans swear he lost the first fight against Pacquiao and also lost to Provodnikov when he beat him by a very close and controversial decision in March of 2013. His October, 2013 fight was also a split decision win over Marquez. However, Bradley’s still considered to be a world-class boxer and rightly so.
The 26-year-old Vargas with just nine stoppages may even possess less power than Bradley. He won the WBA crown in April of last year against Khabib Allakhverdiev and has defended it twice against Antonio DeMarco and Anton Novikov. Vargas is also a talented boxer/puncher with exceptional skills, but lacks the big-fight experience which Bradley has. Vargas likes to establish his jab to set up short, quick flurries to both the head and body. His other notable opponents have been Steve Forbes, Josesito Lopez, Walter Estrada and Vivian Harris.
Bradley stands just 5-feet-6-inches tall and has a 69-inch reach while Vargas is 5-foot-10 with a wingspan of 71 inches. Bradley has fought 254 rounds since turning pro in 2004 while Vargas turned pro in 2008 and has 168 rounds under his belt.
Prediction
Even though Bradley’s knockout percentage currently stands at 35 and Vargas’ is the same, it doesn’t necessarily mean this fight won’t end in a stoppage. However, it’s more likely that this contest will go the distance. Vargas has a decent advantage when it comes to height and reach, but Bradley’s come-forward style and experience may be too much for him to handle. Vargas will need to nail Bradley as he moves in, but there needs to be some pop on his punches. Bradley has to land his hands go to win rounds and he should do enough to take a close decision here.
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