Jessie Vargas feels stronger after last weekend’s victory

The World Boxing Organization’s welterweight title belt has a lot of weight to it, literally and figuratively.

It takes a strong man to hold it, and Jessie Vargas showed he has the strength and ability to not only carry the strap but also use it as a path to bigger fights.

It has been a week since Vargas stopped Sadam Ali in the ninth round in Washington, D.C., to win a world championship in a second weight division. The Las Vegan, who improved to 27-1 with 10 knockouts, said it felt good to perform at such a high level with so much riding on the outcome.

“I’ve been waiting to deliver a performance like this to my fans,” Vargas said Tuesday while attending the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame announcement at Caesars Palace. “I was full of joy and excitement afterward, and I can’t thank my team enough for getting me ready.”

Dewey Cooper, who was brought in five weeks before the fight to train Vargas, made one major adjustment to Vargas’ style by altering the angle in which he threw his right hand. Cooper said Vargas was relying too much on his shoulder to generate power, and it was leaving him off-balance and susceptible to being countered.

“It was a simple adjustment, but it paid big dividends,” Cooper said. “I had watched Jessie’s previous fights and saw he was taking punishment he didn’t need to. Now, he’s got more power, his right is more effective and he has better balance.”

Vargas met with Top Rank executives Monday, and the plan is to have him fight in July on HBO. He would love a rematch with Timothy Bradley Jr., who handed him his only loss in June. But Bradley, who fights Manny Pacquiao on April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden, probably won’t be available that soon, if at all.

“I’ll fight anyone,” Vargas said. “We have a lot of options. It’s wide open.”

PORTER EXHIBITION

With Keith Thurman’s auto accident sidelining him for the next few weeks, Shawn Porter didn’t want to waste all the training for their fight that was originally scheduled for today, so Porter will fight a 12-round exhibition against Lanardo Tyner at 7 p.m. today at Porter’s training facility on Paradise Road.

The exhibition is closed to the public, but will be streamed live on the Premier Boxing Champions Facebook page — www.facebook.com/premierboxingchampions.com.

“When I found out about March 12 not happening because of what happened to Keith, I tried to move forward to fight someone else,” Porter said. “But given the level of that fight with Keith, there wasn’t anything for me really. So my dad and I decided to do this exhibition.

“I’m not getting paid. This is 100 percent for anybody out there who loves to see me compete and perform. We won’t be going through the motions. This is real.”

Showtime announced Friday it has tentatively rescheduled the Thurman-Porter fight for June 25 at a venue to be determined.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow on Twitter: @stevecarprj