Jessie Vargas – Manny Pacquiao: Breaking It Down By The Numbers

By Anthony “Stacks” Saldaña

Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada the WBO World Welterweight Champion, Jessie “Ruthless” Vargas, 27-1, 10 KO’s will put his title on the line against the former 8 division world champion and future hall of famer, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, 58-6-2, 38 KO’s. Pacquiao who announced his retirement in April after defeating Timothy Bradley to focus on his political career as a senator will be back in the ring looking to become world champion once again.

Pacquiao who comes into the fight as a heavy favorite and a -700 on the odd books should handle Vargas quite easily. In fact, my prediction is that Pacquiao will win by a landslide unanimous decision. With that being said, Jessie definitely can’t be overlooked. Vargas is a world champion, who’s only loss comes at the hands Timothy Bradley. As most fight fans remember the Vargas Vs Bradley fight ended in a very controversial decision. Vargas hurt Bradley sending him into the ropes and was going for the knockout, when the 10 second clap sounded.

Referee Pat Russell jumped in between the fighters, waiving off the fight when he mistook the second clap for the bell. Although Vargas lost that fight, just one fight later Vargas defeated Sadam Ali to win the title he currently holds. Vargas is a heavy puncher who comes forward and who’s style will match up nicely against Pacquiao. One other thing fans need to remember is that Manny Pacquiao hasn’t knocked out an opponent since 2009 when he beat Miguel Cotto.

Pacquiao is now 36 years old and has lost as much as he has won lately including being knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez. Saturday Pacquiao will enter the ring against a bigger, stronger and probably a more focused fighter in Vargas. Manny has the speed, ring generalship and over all boxing ability to win this fight easily, but if Manny doesn’t have a game plan and chooses to turn this fight into a brawl, Vargas has every chance to hurt Pacquiao and send him into retirement once and for all. Another concern for Pacquiao is father time, will his age play a factor? Will Manny get old overnight? Saturday night those questions will be answered. For Vargas a loss to Pacquiao will not do much to hurt his career as I was told today by my buddy Diego “It’s Manny.” A win could open up unlimited possibilities for the young champ Vargas. This fight will without a doubt give boxing fans an action-packed battle for as long as it last. With all the factors mentioned above don’t be surprised if Top Rank gives fans a Fight of The Year Candidate when Vargas takes on Pacquiao.

In co-main event WBO World Featherweight Champion, undefeated Oscar Valdez, 20-0, 18 KO’s from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico will make his first title defense against mandatory challenger Hiroshige Osawa, 30-3-4, 19 KO’s. Valdez who won the title by knocking out Matias Rueda on July 23rd recently stated at a press conference in Los Angeles, “I get excited when I fight on these big cards. I’m very grateful to Bob Arum for putting me on a big show like this. I’ve always heard the first title defense is the hardest. I’ve heard this from ex-champions like Julio Cesar Chavez. The hard thing is not getting there and winning a title. The hard thing is maintaining your championship. I am motivated, but it’s even more motivation for me being on great cards like this. I grew up watching Pacquiao fight.

He was in so many great fights. And now I am on his card and I got something to show my people.” Osawa is an unknown to much of the boxing world, but does have Mexican ties as unlike many Japanese boxers he is not managed by Teiken or Watanabe but by Romanza Miyabi meaning he works in connection with the Romanza gym in Mexico, and affiliated with the likes of Nacho Beristain. For Osawa this will only be his third fight outside of his native Japan and his first fight in the United States. Look for the power of Valdez to hurt the Japanese fighter early and often. My prediction Valdez by 5th round TKO.

Also on the card is former four division world champion and current WBO Super Bantamweight Champion, Nonito Donaire, 37-3, 24 KO’s will defend his title against undefeated southpaw prospect, Jessie Magdelano, 23-0, 17 KO’s. The fight between Donaire and Magdelano is my pick for fight of the night and has all the makings to be fight of the year. First off these are bantamweights meaning punches and bunches look for heavy action all night between these two fighters. Jessie who is the younger brother of Diego Magdelano comes from a fighting family and is trained by one of the best in the sport, Manny Robles at the Rock in Carson.

Magdelano is fighting for a world title that in itself will definitely be the match to light his fire. Now let me get back to his trainer, Magdelano recently switched camps and began training with Robles, in the past Magdelano has been trained by Augie Sanchez, Joel Diaz and Ismael Salas. The reason I bring that up is that Donaire has picked up the Cuban trainer Salas for this fight. Now as most boxing fans know Salas is a great trainer and can have a perfect plan for Donaire to beat Magdelano, but will the aging Donaire be able to physically beat Magdelano, I doubt it.

Magdelano is younger, and stronger, and although Donaire may have the speed to give Magdelano fits in the ring, I see Magdelano wearing the older Donaire down. Recently at an open workout in Los Angeles Magdelano was asked how he felt about fighting a veteran like Donaire and he stated “I think his best days are behind him, all of those big fights, they take a lot out of you and it’s part of boxing. You’ve got a young, hungry guy who just wants to take over the world, and that’s me.” My prediction Magdelano by 8th round TKO.

Other bouts Saturday night include:

Shiming Zou, 8-1, 2 KO’s Vs Parsitsak Phaprom, 39-1-2, 24 KO’s, 12 rounds, for the vacant WBO World Flyweight Title.

Alexander Besputin, 4-0, 4 KO’s Vs Azeal Cosio, 20-4-2, 17 KO’s (Welterweight).

Que Xu, 9-1, 2 KO’s Vs Fernando Fuentes, 9-7, 3 KO’s (Featherweight).

Robinson Conceicao (Debut) Vs Clay Burns 4-2-2, 4 KO’s (Lightweight).

Teofimo Lopez (Debut) Vs Ishwar Sequeiros 3-1-1, (Lightweight).

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