Jessie Vargas

Jessie Vargas (born May 10, 1989) is an American professional boxer.

He was a two-time Mexican national champion, a two-time United States junior national champion, and was a member of the 2008 Mexican Olympic team.

In September 2008, Vargas won his pro debut against the undefeated Joel Gonzalez by first-round knockout.

Vargas got attention when, during a fight against Trenton Titsworth, Vargas was kissed on the neck and he responded by hitting Titsworth during the break.

Titsworth was docked two points, Vargas one.

In his twelfth fight he knocked out a former IBO light welterweight Champion Daniel Sarmiento of Argentina.

The bout was the main event of FSN's Fight Night Club.

In his next fight Vargas won an eight-round unanimous decision against Mexican Ramón Montaño on the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana.

On February 24, 2011, Vargas fought at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California, against journeyman Cristian Favela (19–31–7, 10 KOs).

The fight went the 8 round distance.

Favela pressed the action more than expected but ultimately lost on the cards with the three scorecards reading 79–73, 78–74 and 77–75 in favour of Vargas.

On March 31, Golden Boy announced that Vargas would fight former WBA light welterweight Champion Vivian Harris (29–5–1, 19 KO's) at the Desert Arena in Primm, Nevada, on April 8.

This bout was televised on TeleFutura.

Vargas picked up the biggest win of his career to date after Harris quit on his stool after just one round.

Vargas didn't allow Harris to put any work in and badly shook Harris on a few occasions, in what some believed would be a competitive bout.

With the win, Vargas improved to 15–0 (8 KOs).

On June 14, British boxer Ashley Theophane declined the opportunity to fight Vargas on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Victor Ortiz, which was scheduled to take place on September 17.

Theophane stated when he was told he could fight on the card, he expected a potential rematch with Danny Garcia or another big name, however Vargas' name was brought up for an 8-round fight.

Colombian boxer Walter Estrada (39–14–1, 25 KO's) was later confirmed to be Vargas' next opponent in a scheduled 10 round bout on July 8.

After a slow first round, Vargas landed a clean left uppercut in the second round knocking out Estrada.

The stoppage came 38 seconds into the round.

Vargas was next scheduled to fight on the Mayweather vs. Ortiz undercard against Josesito Lopez (29–3, 17 KOs).

In August 2011, British boxer Amir Khan began chasing a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. possibly for 2012.

Vargas began calling out Khan for a potential fight.

Speaking to Fighthype.com, Mayweather said, "Jessie Vargas wants to know why Amir Khan is ducking and dodging. He's asking for him. Everybody is ducking and dodging him. He's my fighter and he wants [Khan]."

Speaking on a radio show, Vargas said, "He keeps saying he wants to fight Floyd. If he really wants to fight Floyd then he has to fight me first."

Vargas earned a tough victory via split decision.

One judge scored the bout 95–94 for Lopez, whilst the other two scored had it 96–93 and 95–94 for Vargas, giving him the win.

In the 10 rounds, Vargas landed 167 of 851 punches thrown (20%) and Lopez landed 122 of his 509 thrown (24%).

Vargas fought on May 5, 2012, on the Mayweather vs. Cotto undercard defeating Steve Forbes (35–10, 11 KOs) after 10 rounds.

The scorecards read 100–90, 97–93 and 98–92.

Forbes was a late replacement for Alfonso Gómez, who withdrew with back spasms.

On June 6, 2012, Vargas signed a deal with boxing manager Cameron Dunkin.

There was rumors that Vargas would be joining Top Rank.

The rumors turned out true.

On June 20, Vargas left Mayweather Promotions to sign with Top Rank.

On February 2, 2013, Top Rank announced that Vargas would be opening the Timothy Bradley vs. Ruslan Provodnikov card against Wale 'Lucky Boy' Omotoso (23–0, 19 KOs) on March 16 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBA (Regular) and IBO super lightweight titles in 2014, and the WBO welterweight title in 2016.

As of August 2021, he is ranked as the world's eleventh best active welterweight by BoxRec.

Vargas had an amateur record of 120 wins and 20 losses.