Vargas-Bradley fight will be for WBO welterweight title

LOS ANGELES — The stakes were raised significantly Monday for Jessie Vargas’ June 27 fight with Timothy Bradley. And Vargas can thank Floyd Mayweather Jr. for helping raise the bar.

Vargas and Bradley will fight for the vacant World Boxing Organization welterweight title at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., that night. The bout will be broadcast on HBO.

Mayweather won the title May 2 when he beat Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden but has since relinquished it. The WBO quickly sanctioned the Vargas-Bradley fight as a title fight.

Pacquiao had held the WBO belt following his win over Bradley on April 12, 2014, after Bradley initially won it from Pacquiao on June 9, 2012, in a controversial split decision at the MGM.

“I’m looking forward to getting my belt back,” Bradley (31-1-1, 12 knockouts) said during Monday’s news conference in downtown Los Angeles to promote the fight with Vargas (26-0, nine KOs). “I need to win this fight.”

Vargas, the reigning World Boxing Association junior welterweight champ, is moving back up to 147 pounds, a weight he fought at earlier in his career. The fight was originally scheduled for 147 pounds, so the fact he has an opportunity to win a world title in a second weight division has added to his motivation.

“It makes things more exciting,” said Vargas, who has moved his preparation for the fight from his trainer Roy Jones Jr.’s gym in Henderson to Mount Charleston and is working out at the gym at the Spring Mountain Youth Center. “This is the kind of fight I want to be involved in, a fight against a real warrior like Tim Bradley and to fight for a title and headline on HBO. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Actually, Vargas did ask for more. He wanted to get Pacquiao in the ring but that wasn’t possible since Mayweather beat him to it. But Top Rank offered Vargas a chance to fight Bradley and both boxers quickly accepted.

“He beat Pacquiao so he’s the next best thing to facing Pacquiao,” Vargas said of Bradley.

Still, Bradley will present numerous problems for Vargas. He can box. He can stand and slug. He has an excellent chin and he’s also motivated by the opportunity to regain the title he once held.

“I’ve gone back to the basics,” Bradley said. “I didn’t win my last fight (a draw against Diego Chaves on Dec. 13) and in the second Pacquiao fight I didn’t do the things I was supposed to.”

Joel Diaz, Bradley’s longtime trainer, said things were getting too complicated.

“He was thinking too much and all that new stuff he was doing, it was confusing him,” Diaz said. “So we changed everything up for this fight. We’re going old school, back to when we started together (in 2005). We want the old Tim Bradley — the one who’s hungry, who’s desperate and who’s coming to kick butt.”

For Vargas, it’s a chance to show the world he can compete with the best. He retained his WBA belt ont Nov. 23 when he outpointed Antonio DeMarco in Macau. And he has won both of his fights at the StubHub Center, the most recent being his 10-round decision over Oyewale Omotoso in March 2013.

“I’m going to use my boxing skills and my size and fight,” Vargas said. “This is a fight where both fighters like to go forward and I think it’s going to be very entertaining for the fans.”

Jones said Bradley presents several challenges but he doesn’t want Vargas getting too crazy in the ring just to provide some entertainment.

“You have to box a warrior,” Jones said. “We think we can match his movement and even though you can’t take everything away from Bradley, we’ll try to take away the things that are most dangerous.”

Tickets for the fight, which go on sale at 10 a.m. today online at www.axs.com, range from $25 to $150. Vargas figures to bring a lot of his Las Vegas fan base to Carson on June 27. But Bradley, who lives in nearby Palm Springs, figures to bring a big crowd as well.

“I call StubHub the ‘War Ground’ because every time there’s a fight there, it’s a war,” Bradley said. “This is going to be another war.”

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