Presumably off the strength of his knockout performance against Bryce Mills last Saturday, Emiliano “El General” Vargas has been elevated to the No. 1 contender position in the World Boxing Organization’s newest junior welterweight ratings.
Vargas, 18-0 (15 KOs), who is now the highest-ranked challenger to champion Shakur Stevenson, put in some impressive work over the weekend, dropping formerly 22-1 New Yorker Mills twice on the way to stopping him in the fourth round.
The entertaining battle served as the co-featured event to Jaron “Boots” Ennis’ title-winning stoppage over former champion Xander Zayas at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
In beating Mills, Vargas defended his North American Boxing Federation Junior and WBO Latino junior welterweight titles and picked up the WBC USA Silver championship.
22-year-old Vargas’ ascension displaces last month’s newly elected top contender, 31-year-old Lindolfo Delgado, 24-0 (16 KOs), the 2016 former Olympian from Mexico, who now falls to No. 2. Delgado still holds the No. 1 position at junior welterweight in this month’s IBF rankings.
Sporting matinee idol good looks and a penchant for fashion, Vargas, the son of former world champion Fernando Vargas, from Oxnard, California, has a TV-friendly personality and an exciting, hard-punching style that should serve to accent the personality of the modern sweet science’s compelling characters.
He has knocked out 15 of his 18 opponents.