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.
Taking to his Twitter account yesterday, Vargas wrote:
“Vargas vs. Bradley 2! #payback.”
And:
“He (Brook) doesn’t seem to be interested in the fight from the looks of it. Next big fight the fans would enjoy would be the Bradley rematch!”
Brook has been quick to reply to his would-be rival; insisting he is more than ready to fight Vargas.
“Stop talking shit @jesse_vargasJV TR have the terms (over 3 times your biggest purse) we are ready to knock you clean out #unified,” Brook wrote today.
Vargas’ sole pro defeat came at the hands of Tim Bradley, but in the June 2015 fight Vargas badly stunned Bradley in the fading seconds of the 12th and final round – only for the referee to mistakenly signal the fight had ended, when he had in fact heard the final ten-second warning. To this day, Vargas, 27-1(10) believes he was robbed of a KO victory. Now, with the Brook fight seemingly taking forever to get made, Vargas is looking at facing “Desert Storm” a second time instead.
It may just be frustration and nothing more on Vargas’ part, and if he’s signed the contract to fight Brook (as he said he had a while back) he will be legally bound to go ahead with the fight. But Vargas’ frustration is certainly understandable. He wants to get his career going and not waste time waiting for a promoter to work on other fights before his own can be made official.
Let’s hope Hearn, who says he is working hard, can get this one done soon. Brook wants it, Vargas wants it, but the clock is ticking.