Thursday, March 28, 2024  |

News

Jessie Vargas envisions KO of Khabib Allakhverdiev

Fighters Network
10
Apr

LAS VEGAS — Junior welterweight Jessie Vargas has replayed Saturday's fight with Khabib Allakhverdiev several times in his head, and he only sees it ending one way: With his hands raised in victory.

Vargas will face Allakhverdiev on the undercard of the Tim Bradley-Manny Pacquiao rematch at the MGM Grand on HBO Pay Per View.

"The plan is to take him out. To knock him out. That's the plan. I'm ready 100 percent like never before. I envision myself hitting him with a hard right hand and that he won't know what hit him. Then I'll hit him with another hook, right on the chin, and he won't know what to do. Then I'll hit him with body shots and head shots and he still doesn't know what to do," said Vargas, 24.

"That's what I plan on doing all night. He's going to come in aggressively, but I'm going to get rid of him. If he gets a shot in, I'm going to come back with two, three, four shots. I'm going to come in on fire. They don't realize what they've gotten themselve into. They're in with an animal, right now, and anything that they want to get off on, I'm going to come back with something five times as hard and punches in bunches."



A 31-year-old southpaw, Allakhverdiev (19-0, 9 knockouts) has stoppage wins in three of his past four fights, and is coming off a July's 11th-round stoppage of Souleymane M'baye.

Meanwhile, Vargas (23-0, 9 KOs) has not stopped a fighter in his past seven victories, his last being a second-round knockout of Walter Estrada in July 2011.

"Allakhverdiev is also an undefeated fighter, and anytime you get two undefeated fighters, you have to come to give it your all. I've been in this position plenty of times, and I've taken out numerous undefeated fighters," said Vargas.

"I come to fight. It might take a couple of rounds, but after that, I start to take people apart. That's what I expect to happen. It might sound overconfident, but that's what I'm expecting to happen on Saturday night."

Vargas was reminded of his purse compared to that of Allakhverdieva's, which is $250,000 to $90,00 for Vargas.

"Once I become the champion, then I'll be on that side, hopefully. That would secure me that big purse," said Vargas. "I've got to take this apart and get an impressive victory, if not, an impressive knockout victory. So I think that it's going to be an exciting fight."

SIGN UP TO GET RING NEWS ALERTS