Junior welterweight prospect Jessie Vargas could face Alfonso Gomez on May 5 on the under card of the HBO Pay Per View-televised main event featuring WBC welterweight titteholder Floyd Mayweather Jr. against WBA junior middleweight titleholder Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Eric Gomez, matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions.

The card already is stacked, as it also has WBC junior middleweight beltholder Saul Alvarez facing challenger Shane Mosley

“The third fight is going to be Jessie Vargas. I’m finalizing a deal with Alfonso Gomez,” said Gomez. “I’m finalizing the deal, but I’m still in the process right now.”

The 22-year-old Vargas (18-0, 10 knockouts) is coming off an ugly, 10-round unanimous decision over Lanardo Tyner during which he won all but one round on the three judges’ cards in a brawl that featured two low blows by each of the boxers, exchanges long after the bell following the first, second and fifth rounds, and both combatants tasting the canvas twice — none of which were official knockdowns.

Promoted by Mayweather, Vargas won for the third straight time since defeating former titleholder Vivian Harris in July of last year, and was coming off September’s 10-round split-decision over rugged fringe contender Josesito Lopez on November’s undercard of Mayweather’s fourth-round stoppage of Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Having also scored a second-round knockout of Walter Estrada in July, Vargas now looks to face Gomez, who is coming off coming off September’s contentious sixth-round knockout loss to Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs) after having given Alvarez some problems with his pressure early on.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]