Jessie Vargas was 8 years old when he watched a documentary about Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez, one of his era\u2019s greatest boxers.<\/p>\n
If boxing helped Chavez support his family amid his three-division championship glory, Vargas thought it could for Vargas, too.<\/p>\n
That it would and that it did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I decided this is it and I never swayed from it,\u201d Vargas, 37, said this week. \u201cI never deterred. I stayed with the plan. There were a lot of ups and downs. A lot of trials and tribulations, but knowing that my family would benefit from everything made me stick with it. Made want to keep pushing. Made me want to give more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Billed in the ring as \u201cThe Pride of Las Vegas,\u201d Vargas mimicked his childhood muse, boxing his way to wealth, a world title \u2014 and also the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. The former WBO welterweight champion awaits enshrinement Saturday night at the Hall of Fame\u2019s annual induction dinner, held this year at The Orleans & Hotel and Casino to commemorates its classes of 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n
Forged in Summerlin and North Las Vegas, Vargas boxed 14 years professionally \u2014 fighting 17 times in his beloved home state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a true honor in one of the biggest ways possible,\u201d Vargas relayed Thursday afternoon. \u201c \u2026 It all connects. My career, my life. Everything is in Las Vegas. The Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame is in Las Vegas. So, it all correlates with what my career has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Chavez as his muse and his father\u2019s support, Vargas (29-4-2, 11 knockouts) favored boxing over other team sports for its one-on-one format, inherent with lessons. He watched the documentary about Chavez during his first week training at a boxing gym. Nevada Partners \u2014 then managed by former referee Richard Steele \u2014 is where he started his education.<\/p>\n
Gyms around Las Vegas fostered his growth as he developed under late famed trainer Roger Mayweather, turning pro in 2008 with a first-round stoppage win in Primm. A year later, Vargas debut at MGM Grand Garden on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather\u2019s clinical win over Juan Manuel Marquez.<\/p>\n
He was off and fighting.<\/p>\n
A fixture on prominent undercards, Vargas won a secondary junior welterweight title \u2014 beating Khabib Allakhverdiev in 2014 at MGM Grand Garden unanimously. A loss at welterweight to Timothy Bradley for the interim WBO welterweight title set up his career-defining achievement: a stoppage win over Sadam Ali for the vacant WBO welterweight crown that led to a bout at Thomas & Mack Center with Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, I showed everyone that I was honest when I said I was going to become a world champion,\u201d Vargas said, recalling his welterweight title win (as an underdog) as the proudest achievement in his career. \u201cI had the talent. I had the attributes. I had everything to become a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
And also a Nevada Boxing Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I represented (Las Vegas) properly and that\u2019s what I\u2019m really proud of as well,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cI represent Las Vegas, letting people know there\u2019s great things that come out of Las Vegas as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X.<\/p>\n
Other SNHOF inductees<\/p>\n
Class of 2025: Laura Serrano, Antonio Tarver, Jorge Paez, Mikey Garcia, Paulie Ayala, Ricky Hatton, Brad Goodman<\/p>\n
Class of 2026: Vargas, Gennady Golovkin, Raul Marquez, Marcos Maidana, Gerry Cooney, Richard Slone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessie Vargas was 8 years old when he watched a documentary about Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-858661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}