Sports commentating stars STEPHEN A. SMITH, BRIAN KENNY and CHARISSA THOMPSON will join former two-division and five-time world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY as the ringside broadcast team for the MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO vs.. JESSIE VARGAS world welterweight championship fight which will take place Saturday, November 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The broadcast team will also feature TopRank.com’s CRYSTINA PONCHER who will be the telecast’s roving reporter.
Jessie Vargas
So who will televise Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas?
Manny Pacquiao’s November 5 comeback fight with reigning WBO welterweight champ Jessie Vargas, while a solid fight, has not caught fire with the majority of fight fans. Pac-Man, who will end the retirement from boxing he announced after his rubber-match win over Tim Bradley in April, is a fighter fans will always want to watch, but it was hoped he would face a bigger, more marquee name than Vargas in his return – Terence Crawford for example (a match-up that could still happen next year some time).
HBO, who televised many of Pac-Man’s greatest hits, will not be showing the November return bout, and promoter Bob Arum now has the job of finding a network that will carry the fight. Currently in The Philippines, Arum told RingTV.com that as soon as he returns to the states he will be working on finding the fight he himself says will be a great fight a home. It’s possible, Arum said, that the fight could end up being televised by either Showtime (HBO’s major rival of course), ESPN or a Turner network. It’s unclear how many fans will be eager to tune into the fight wherever it is shown.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas on November 5!
Manny Pacquiao’s personal adviser Michael Koncz is reporting that they’ve made their decision about who they’ll be fighting next on November 5 and they’ve selected World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 12 KOs). The fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view. Koncz says the reason why he didn’t go with unbeaten Terence Crawford, a fighter that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is really high on, is because he didn’t like his boxing style of fighting. Koncz thinks that Crawford’s style of fighting isn’t a good one for Pacquiao.
Arum to meet with Pacquiao on August 9 to discuss Crawford/Vargas
Top Rank boss Bob Arum is set to fly out to Manila on August 9, to meet up with the soon to return to the ring Manny Pacquiao and discuss his planned November 5 return to action. According to The Manila Times, Arum says Pac-Man’s opponent will likely be either unbeaten, recently unified WBO/WBC 140-pound champion Terence Crawford or once-beaten reigning WBO welterweight ruler Jessie Vargas.
“I have already booked my flight to Manila, I’m looking forward to that meeting” Arum said. “So far, they [Crawford and Vargas] are the candidates. It’s going to be an absolute blockbuster of a fight, either of the two. Everybody is excited to see Manny return. His last fight against Timothy Bradley was great.”
Jessie Vargas wants Pacquiao
He may have lost out on a big unification meeting with IBF champ Kell Brook, but reigning WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas believes he is on the verge of a much bigger fight: one with the soon to return Manny Pacquiao. As fans have read, superstar Pacquiao is, according to his promoter Bob Arum, set to return to action in November, in Las Vegas. Vargas, 27-1(10) and beaten only by Pacquiao common opponent Tim Bradley, told media members in Vegas yesterday how he feels he is very close to getting the Nov. 5 date with Pac-Man.
“I am the WBO welterweight champion and he wants to return to fight for this belt,” Vargas said as quoted by The National. “The fight is still under negotiation and I can say that soon we will announce it, although I do not want to advance because in boxing everything can change every minute. Manny has never faced someone like me. I’m at my best, I have several advantages. I’m taller and faster than him. I’m a really smart fighter too. I not only want to face him but I want to beat him. Juan Manuel Marquez did it and I want to beat him too, mainly because at his best he gave many headaches to Mexico fighters.”
Jessie Vargas losing patience with Kell Brook fight, looking at fighting return with Tim Bradley instead
WBO welterweight ruler Jessie Vargas is losing patience with regards to his supposed upcoming (but still not officially announced) unification clash with IBF 147-pound champ Kell Brook. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has admitted to some “frustrations” in getting the fight finalised with a set date – due in large part to trying to make the GGG-Eubank Junior fight for around the same time period of late August/September – but Vargas is beginning to look elsewhere.
Kell Brook-Jessie Vargas unification fight in talking stage for summer
Britain’s Kell Brook holds the IBF welterweight title and America’s Jessie Vargas hold the WBO 147-pound title: together they could make up a great unification fight this summer. That’s the word according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, who reports that the respective promoters of Brook and Vargas, Eddie Hearn and Carl Moretti, met this week and spoke about the fight. The two champions are both eager for big fights and it seems the biggest obstacle in the way of making this IBF/WBO clash is the location.
Jessie Vargas wants Tim Bradley rematch, fights with Danny Garcia, Kell Brook
Once-beaten Jesse Vargas, who won the vacant WBO welterweight title with an impressive 9th-round stoppage of Sadam Ali this past Saturday, has a number of fighters in mind for future showdowns, but when it comes to the one man Vargas, 27-1(10) really wants, there is one stand out choice: Tim Bradley, the man who gave Vargas his sole career defeat.
Vargas, in speaking with RingTV.com, said he wants to take over where he left off in his June 2015 fight with Bradley, when he had Bradley hurt and in trouble in the 12th and final round (before referee Pat Russell made an error and, thinking he heard the bell when in fact it was the last ten-seconds warning, jumped in and ended the fight around ten seconds early). Vargas, though, says he will “knock Bradley out in four-rounds next time.”