Emiliano Vargas already had the acclaim of his father\u2019s name before he appeared on the Super Bowl halftime show with Bad Bunny in February.<\/p>\n
As he moves to Saturday night\u2019s DAZN pay-per-view card casting his Super Bowl co-star and unified 154lbs champion Xander Zayas in the main event versus Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis at Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center, the 22-year-old Vargas is poised to bask in attention few other boxers this young have ever drawn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to show everyone in New York and the rest of the world that I\u2019m ready for a world title,\u201d Vargas, 17-0 (14 KOs), told BoxingScene of his bout against New York\u2019s own Bryce Mills. \u201c[Mills] is the guy in the way of that, so I\u2019ve got to crush him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas, a 140lbs contender ranked No. 2 behind four-division champion Shakur Stevenson by the WBO while being title-fight-eligible in the top 15 among the other three organizations, has set out a plan to move from the sport\u2019s 2025 prospect of the year to world champion in short order.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet the victory in amazing fashion Saturday, [fight] a title eliminator, and then fight for the title,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Participating in Saturday\u2019s high-profile show versus Mills, 22-1 (9 KOs), should only enhance that track given the expected widespread interest the card will generate as Puerto Rico\u2019s unbeaten Zayas, 23, dares to risk his WBO and WBA belts against the favored former unified welterweight champion Ennis, 35-0 (31 KOs), of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Vargas, who fought at Madison Square Garden\u2019s Theater last year, has witnessed the spectacles of three-division champion Gervonta Davis\u2019 recent cards at Barclays Center \u2013 Madonna attended his 2022 defense versus Rolly Romero \u2013 and he understands what seizing the moment means.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge card, a great opportunity to shine like I want\u2026 Barclays looked packed and huge [for Davis]. I\u2019m excited to feel the energy, to feel the crowd,\u201d Vargas said.<\/p>\n
The son of two-time 154lbs champion Fernando Vargas, Emiliano stepped before the massive Super Bowl crowd in the Bay Area earlier this year to perform a mock sparring session with Zayas during Bad Bunny\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of people working there around Bad Bunny\u2019s team were all Puerto Rican\u2026 they talk very fast, so Xander got in one or two more words than me, but we felt like family,\u201d Vargas said of Zayas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve kept in contact. I\u2019ve known him since the amateurs, but after the Super Bowl, we got real close. I\u2019m blessed to be on a huge card with him as the main event.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I going to try to outshine the main event? Of course. I\u2019ve been doing that every fight. I love the fans showing up to support Xander and everything he\u2019s putting on the line, though. That\u2019s what a champion\u2019s all about. He\u2019s taking the biggest opportunities to show the world who he is and what he\u2019s made of.\u201d<\/p>\n
An aggressive fighter with unique power, Vargas knows his own competition is increasing as he nears a title fight, so he\u2019s tended to his boxing skill over recent camps and vows he\u2019s capable of winning the fight in a sharp showing.<\/p>\n
His rise also increases the importance of his father\u2019s training. Title-fight circumstances vary extremely from profile-building walkovers, and Emiliano said he\u2019s especially grateful for Fernando\u2019s presence and wisdom as the stakes heighten.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father \u2013 everywhere I want to go, he\u2019s been,\u201d Emiliano Vargas said. \u201cHe told me once that, \u2018One day, when we get to the main-event stage and the lights are so bright, I\u2019m going to whisper in your ear, \u2018You made it.\u2019 Very few fighters can handle that pressure. But the same blood that runs through him runs through me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father is an amazing trainer, open to working with other trainers and trying new things. He doesn\u2019t think he knows it all. That\u2019s the best asset we have \u2013 my father being open to new lessons, still learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s valuable information from a corner who\u2019s been down, that\u2019s come back, who\u2019s been cut. I haven\u2019t been cut before, haven\u2019t been down before. These things come with experience. Some trainers say they\u2019re ready for it, but, when it happens, they\u2019re not. We\u2019ve covered all the bases. The corner is a big asset. There\u2019s no better feeling than winning with the people you love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elder Vargas has for years cautioned his fighter sons to avoid the pitfalls of his reckless social and dietary life during a career that featured memorable bouts versus Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad and Ricardo Mayorga.<\/p>\n
The detail with Emiliano is now centered on maximizing the effect of his own positive outside-the-ring habits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now down to the food I eat after a fight, how I hydrate, how I train. Should I be running on fight week?\u201d Emiliano Vargas said. \u201cAll these different things, my father has already gone through. There were times they had to carry him out of the sauna, times when all he ate was pizza, ice cream and pasta after weigh-ins and then he felt like garbage the next day. He still fought to levels where doctors would tell him, \u2018This is physically impossible\u2026 .\u2019 Things like that have played into my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Increasingly, other 140lbs contenders are calling out Vargas. Asked if his popularity or some type of vulnerability is fueling the interest, he believes it\u2019s the interest in connecting to his star power.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery fighter is supposed to think he can beat another fighter. Also, there\u2019s things we\u2019re doing outside of boxing they want to be associated with. They want to say they beat me. Even back to the amateurs, they weren\u2019t fighting me. They were fighting my father. They want to say they beat Fernando Vargas\u2019 son. They wouldn\u2019t even mention me,\u201d Emiliano Vargas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that and I trained with intention because of that. I knew they were coming. I\u2019m a very competitive person. I don\u2019t want to lose in anything. It\u2019s, \u2018OK, you\u2019re going to train hard? I\u2019m going to train harder. You\u2019re going to run five miles? I\u2019m going to run 10.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon winning the prospect of the year award, Vargas learned February opponent Agustin Quintana went for a three-mile fight-week run. Vargas made his training run a 10-miler.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, I\u2019m sick. I have that sick, competitive nature that comes from my father, and it\u2019s bettered me,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they think they can beat me, I think I can beat any fighter. So it\u2019s all good to me that people want to bring my name up for attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas says he\u2019s continually reviewing his own sparring sessions in order to improve his defense and footwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a perfectionist. I just want to be the best version of myself and I don\u2019t want to be beat so I\u2019ll ask myself the same question every time, \u2018How do I beat Emiliano Vargas?\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we work on. Whatever opportunity presents itself, I\u2019m open to every opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emiliano Vargas already had the acclaim of his father\u2019s name before he appeared on the Super Bowl halftime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,10078,97751,16715,219592,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-653240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-bryce-mills","tag-emiliano-vargas","tag-fernando-vargas","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}