Tomorrow night on ESPN2’s Golden Boy on ESPN broadcast, recent former super featherweight titleholder Francisco Vargas returns to the ring for a tuneup against former punchline Rod Salka. This isn’t likely to be a tough fight, but it is an important one in the Mexican’s career.
As a 2008 Mexican Olympian who won his first fight in London, Francisco Vargas (24-1-2, 17 KOs) was a known prospect when he turned professional in March of 2010. His shine was dulled significantly, however, in his fourth pro fight as Vargas only managed a four round draw against a local Mexican club fighter. This disappointing result did not deter the Olympian though. He responded with twelve straight wins before getting the biggest opportunity of his career to date, a 2013 ShoBox main event against Brandon Bennett in which he won handily on the cards.
After two more quality wins over Jerry Belmontes and Abner Cotto, Vargas returned for an important slot on the Canelo Alvarez versus Erislandy Lara PPV against former titleholder and popular Puerto Rican Juan Manuel Lopez. Now it must be noted that Juanma was notable shot already by that point in mid 2014, but Vargas treated him appropriately and was rid of him by the end of three. After a tuneup in Mexico, an HBO Latino televised main event was next against once beaten Will Tomlinson. Francisco again impressed again that night, dominating and downright battering his opponent until the stoppage was found in the eighth.
This set Vargas up for the biggest fight of his career, a WBO title shot against insanely tough Japanese fighter Takashi Miura on the undercard of the major Canelo versus Miguel Cotto PPV. This fight delivered in the biggest way. Vargas and Miura put on an extreme display of savagery in the ring. Both men were badly hurt and nearly finished multiple times along the way, but it was Vargas who punctuated the ninth round with the stoppage win. If that wasn’t enough, Vargas nearly matched the intensity of the Miura fight his very next time out in an HBO main event draw against the equally tough Orlando Salido. Vargas didn’t get the win for the second time in his career that night, but he was a household name amongst boxing fans after that simply ridiculous two fight sequence in terms of action.
Unfortunately these kinds of wars take a lot out of a fighter and understandably so. While Francisco Vargas was able to war with upstart contender Miguel Berchelt for about four rounds six months later, he couldn’t sustain the intensity any longer. That plus the fact that Berchelt has since revealed himself to be an elite talent led to a second half of the fight beating that Vargas could not survive. He was finished in the eleventh. Vargas has returned once since with an nine round technical decision over Stephen Smith in December. There was a lot of talk about his improved technique in that fight from the HBO team, but I saw the same old brawler who was just better than his British opponent before Smith’s ear disgustingly started to rip off and the fight was forced to the cards.
Rod Salka (24-4, 4 KOs) is here to be a B-side, loser of an opponent and nothing more. If you recognize his name, it is because he has been in this position even more prominently before. In one of the worst booked mismatches of recent memory, Salka was pulled all the way up to welterweight in the summer of 2014 to be sacrificed to Danny Garcia on Showtime despite having lost multiple times at lower weights as significantly lower levels of the sport. Salka was predictably smashed out early by Garcia.
As much as of a farce as that fight was and as much as Rod Salka stands next to no chance to win this one, I can at least say it isn’t as bad of a booking as the Garcia fight was. Most importantly, Rod Salka is fighting as a natural weight here at 130 lbs. That alone removes half of the ridiculousness that was the Garcia mismatch. Second, and this is just as important in terms of fan reaction, is where and when this fight is. Even though it is nearly as bad of a skills and talent mismatch, it is on a smaller ESPN2 series against a fighter looking to rebuild in Vargas instead of a Showtime broadcast against an established star. Salka is also 5-0 since the Garcia joke, but of course these fights were at a lower level.
If Francisco Vargas struggles against Rod Salka, it will officially be time to worry about the damage he as taken in his wars. It will be time to be concerned about the idea of putting him back in with top fighters. I don’t think he will though. Salka can box a little bit, but he brings little pop on his shots and just isn’t half the athlete Vargas is on his good days. I predict Francisco Vargas takes this one, but potentially by decision. Salka has been durable at his normal weight.
I am not sure which fight exactly the co-main event will be here, but it will feature and undefeated prospect in either junior welterweight Johnny Navarro (13-0, 7 KOs) or junior lightweight Aidar Sharibayev (7-0, 6 KOs) against Shoki Sakai (23-7-2, 13 KOs) or Andrew Cancio (17-4-2, 13 KOs) respectively. It is entirely possible both fights are shown as well.
The broadcast begins at 10 PM Eastern on ESPN2. The WatchESPN app/website broadcast starts an hour and a half later at 8:30 PM if you’re interested in the whole live card start to finish. What else do you have to do on a Thursday night?
