WORLD Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jessie Vargas vowed to give eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao a severe beating when they clash at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 5.
While not many are pleased with Pacquiao’s choice of Vargas, who is also under Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, the American told Boxing Scene that he disagrees with the critics and said there is no need for the Filipino, who has been fighting as a welterweight all these years to drop down to junior welterweight to face the unbeaten WBC/WBO champion Terrence Crawford.
Crawford is coming off a dominant victory over previously unbeaten Viktor Postol, who was trained by Pacquiao trainor Freddie Roach.
Vargas insisted that after he sends Pacquiao into retirement, the same critics will be praising him as the next superstar in boxing.
“I’m going to surprise the world. I’m going to let them know, who Jessie Vargas is. I’m going to beat the the sh_t out of Manny Pacquiao and then I’ll be the next star and everyone will be talking about me. It’s plain and simple.”
However, Pacquiao’s first trainer when he won the WBC flyweight title with a stunning eighth-round knockout of Chatchai Sasakul in Thailand in December 1998 said Vargas “will be an easy fight for Manny” and he is hoping it will lead to a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.