Will Vargas spoil Manny’s party?

Sen. Manny Pacquiao is out to regain the WBO welterweight title which he has held twice before and defending champion Jessie Vargas stands in the way of another reign on the throne. On Nov. 5, they face off at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, the same venue where Pacquiao demolished Erik Morales twice in 2006.

Curiously, Morales is one of six trainers whom Vargas has employed in eight years as a pro. The others are Roger Mayweather, Cornelius Boza-Edwards (whom Rolando Navarrete knocked out for the WBC superfeatherweight title in 1981), Ismael Salas, Roy Jones Jr. and now, Dewey Cooper.

If Vargas changes trainers like the weather in London, there must be something wrong with his personality. He never lost with five of those trainers. The only trainer who worked his corner in a loss was Morales and that was when Vargas almost knocked out Tim Bradley last year. Vargas’ fickle nature indicates instability and in boxing, that’s a recipe for failure.

Vargas, 27, is 10 years younger than Pacquiao. His record is 27-1, with 10 KOs. In his most recent outing, Vargas stopped Sadam Ali to capture the vacant WBO welterweight title. It was Vargas’ first abbreviated outing in the last 12 bouts. That was also Vargas’ most impressive performance ever and put him in line for a money showdown with Pacquiao. Cooper made his debut in Vargas’ corner and kept his job with the victory.

Kieran Mulvaney, writing in Boxing News of London, said “Vargas had done little to demonstrate he might be a hard puncher…but he promised that, after hooking up with Cooper, he would bring new power to the ring and he proved true to his word.” Vargas dropped Ali twice before referee Kenny Chevalier stepped in at 2:09 of the ninth.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach once worked opposite Vargas’ corner. That was when Roach’s protégé Antonio DeMarco battled Vargas in Macau in 2014. Vargas’ trainer was Jones. The three judges scored it 116-112 for Vargas, giving DeMarco only four rounds. Vargas had some shaky moments in the ninth and 10th rounds but DeMarco couldn’t stem the tide. At the weigh-in before the fight, Vargas scaled 140 pounds and DeMarco, 139.3. But when they entered the ring, Vargas seemed a lot bigger. There was talk that Vargas had hired controversial performance-enhancing-drug pusher Angel Hernandez, also known as Memo Heredia, to prepare him for DeMarco.

When Vargas and Pacquiao meet, there should be some kind of test to wipe out all doubts that the WBO champion is juiced. It will be recalled that Heredia also worked with Juan Manuel Marquez for his fourth encounter with Pacquiao in 2012. Marquez showed up looking like a muscle-bound Marvel hero, withstood Pacquiao’s hardest shots and scored a knockout in the sixth.

Experience will clearly be on Pacquiao’s side. Pacquiao’s record is 58-6-2, with 38 KOs and he’s battled a slew of Hall of Fame shoo-ins unlike Vargas. Pacquiao has been a pro for over 20 years and has logged 66 fights compared to 28 for Vargas. The downside is Pacquiao has accumulated a lot more wear and tear than Vargas. Another factor in Vargas’ favor is his uncanny ability to dominate southpaws. He’s defeated lefthanders DeMarco, Khabib Allakverdiev and Anton Novikov. Pacquiao is, of course, a southpaw.

A 2008 Beijing Olympian representing Mexico, Vargas said one of his motivations to beat Pacquiao is to avenge the defeats of his idols Marco Antonio Barrera and Morales to the Filipino icon. Vargas said he won’t be like Floyd Mayweather in battling Pacquiao. He isn’t afraid to engage and trade. “I’m not a boring fighter and I choose not to be a boring fighter,” he said. “I want to be in an action fight. I’m not going to run. I never have. I will always come to give a great fight. That’s always been the purpose of my game. You’re gonna see a war. This is my time. I will sit there and trade with Manny. This is like a pack of lions. I’m the young lion coming in there to take him out.”

At the moment, Pacquiao is without a major world title. He lost the WBO crown to Mayweather last year and claimed the vacant WBO International welterweight belt on a unanimous decision over Bradley last April. Pacquiao would like nothing better than to retire as world champion, not as a contender. Vargas gives him the opportunity to win another world title. It’s a chance that’s hard to resist.

The word is Pacquiao could fight twice more before hanging up his gloves for good next year. Mayweather is expected to come out of retirement to face Pacquiao in a rematch in one of those two fights – the last megabuck deal for both legends. But whether Pacquiao decides to continue fighting or not will depend on how he does against Vargas. That’s why the Vargas fight could be make or break for Pacquiao. If Pacquiao wins convincingly like he did over Bradley last April, expect those two more fights, including one against Mayweather. If Pacquiao loses or doesn’t win convincingly, he might just call it quits and concentrate on his duties as Senator. For sure, the whole world will be watching how the fight turns out.