REBUILDING PROJECT
Amir Khan continues his comeback against Samuel Vargas
FEW expect Samuel Vargas to test Amir Khan this weekend in Birmingham, and even fewer anticipate an upset. But with the Khan comeback opponent bar now set at Phil Lo Greco, he of the 39-second defeat in April, there is at least the hope Vargas, unbeaten in his last five fights, is durable enough to hear more than just the one bell – the first – on Saturday evening (September 8).
Four-and-a-half months on, it’s still tough to fathom what happened the night Lo Greco dissolved at the feet of Khan in Liverpool. Wrecked inside a minute, what made Lo Greco’s capitulation all the more shocking was that it followed months of hype and trash talk and social media sparring, the kind which suggested he was not only confident in his ability but confident he’d expose every one of the Khan flaws he claimed to have detected.
Alas, Lo Greco didn’t even come close. Bamboozled by speed, he tasted Khan’s power early, looked lost, felt surrounded, and then crumpled to the canvas, a mess of unsteady limbs and regret. So simple was the victory, in fact, it said less about the Bolton man’s brilliance and more about Lo Greco’s suitability as an opponent. It was quick. It was clinical. It was, above all else, a bit embarrassing.
Going in, maybe we were all a little naïve. With three defeats from his previous six fights, perhaps we should have seen it coming. Expected the worst. Lowered already low expectations. Then again, when two of those defeats are against Errol Spence Jr and Shawn Porter, bona fide world-class welterweights, you’re entitled to some benefit of the doubt. Moreover, to Khan’s credit, he did to Lo Greco what Spence and Porter couldn’t – blitzed him, humiliated him – and, in the process, proved he possesses something he has long been accused of lacking: fight-ending power.
Certainly, the mismatch told us little else. In 39 seconds we learned about Phil Lo Greco’s durability, or lack thereof, than we did Amir Khan’s prospects of once again mixing it with the world’s elite. We got a taste for it and nothing more. Just as quickly as it was delivered it was taken away, leaving us all to ask, “Was that it?”
Annoyingly, for now it’s all we have. Opponents like Lo Greco, Khan’s softest for a decade, and now Vargas, possibly number two on that list, are the appetisers forced on us before the main course. They’re cheap, they’ll go down quickly, and you don’t have to like them. After all, the real nourishment, we’re promised, is on its way. Kell Brook, we hope, is on his way.
First, though, we’ll give Samuel Vargas, 29-3-2 (14), the benefit of the doubt, just as we did with Phil Lo Greco in April. ³
We’ll suspend our disbelief and offer him the chance to prove himself, back up his boasts, of which there have been plenty, and do to Khan, 32-4 (20), what he says is straightforward and obvious.
“If I touch him on the chin, he’s going down,” said Vargas, born in Colombia, based in Canada. “That’s a guarantee. I’m sure it’s going to be hostile territory, but I’ll impose my will on him. He’s an old man. He’s been hurt before and he’s been stopped many times.
“I just have to land one punch on his chin – left or right hand. His feet will go all over the place, and if he’s still there I’ll hit him again and again.
“If he’s expecting another 39-second blowout, he’s going to be in for a big shock. He’s been stopped really badly a couple of times, so we know it’s always there and we have 36 minutes to do it.
“Genetically, we’re not supposed to receive that much punishment and get back up. Your body can only take so much before it gives out. Maybe this is the fight for him. He’s older, he’s received a lot of punishment, he’s got a lot of mileage on him, so I just have to go out there and expose him.”
Admittedly, this all sounds perfectly plausible. It makes sense, the idea that the damage a fighter accrues will increase their susceptibility to being knocked out, and Samuel Vargas, fuelled by Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, may well be on to something. He might gain confidence from those Khan knockouts. He might now believe in himself. He might, on the night, throw with conviction, aware that all it takes is one shot and that others have found success following the same blueprint.
But, equally, sceptics might take one look at Vargas’ professional record, or watch one of his fights, and realise it’s one thing plotting the downfall of an opponent, and doing so with shrewd analysis, and another thing carrying it out with limited resources.
Phil Lo Greco knows this. He too had the right idea, the right intentions, and presumably the right sort of game plan. But then, of course, the bell rang, and Khan became more than just a boxer he’d studied on video, or a Boxrec record on screen, or an amiable bloke in a suit at a press conference. He was all of a sudden real. And so was the job – one too big for Phil Lo Greco.
On Vargas’ 34-fight pro record, you’ll find three defeats, two of which were stoppages. One was administered by Errol Spence (rsf 4) in 2015, the other by Danny Garcia (rsf 7) a year later. On both occasions he was outclassed, beaten up, thrashed. Garcia decked him as early as the first round; Spence toyed with him. This evidence doesn’t mean Khan will do the same, no, but it’s enough to suggest Vargas is not only ill-equipped to win at a world-class level but, worse, that he’s accustomed to feeling out of his depth when finding himself there. Far from competitive, he often sinks. That said, Vargas, 29, at least has form a couple of levels beneath the A-league. Unlike Lo Greco, he hasn’t been humbled for a while, and last year he defeated Ali Funeka, a former world title challenger, and Jussi Koivula, a two-time European title challenger. Those aren’t bad wins, nor is a draw against Mauro Maximiliano Godoy in June the worst result in the world. If nothing else, he’s been doing rounds, staying busy and building momentum. That’s something. What Vargas hasn’t done, however, is create a case to suggest he presents Amir Khan with any danger outside the obvious – punch to chin theory – on Saturday night. Essentially, if the punch to chin theory fails to bear fruit, what we’re left with is a tough man from Bogota who marks up
around the face, is prone to being hit and hurt, but will keep coming forward until he’s put out of his misery. Slow of hand and foot, Vargas will take one to give one and use grit and determination in lieu of technique and ring generalship. He’ll be brave. He’ll be a tad unorthodox. There will be moments when he charges, leads with his head, gets dirty, and there will be moments, also, when his pressure could frustrate, become hard work, and an opponent, whoever it is, will want him to leave them alone. He will fight even when he knows he can’t win; even when doing so only makes it worse.
But Khan, 31, has seen it all before. Thirteen years into his pro career, the two-time world champion harshly described by Vargas as an “old man” has encountered more than one Vargas upgrade along the way. Rough guys like Michael Gomez, Marcos Maidana, Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz, to name a few. He has dealt with that style, that attitude, that aggression. In some cases, it has brought out the best in him. The ones able to hit him on the chin found success, sure, but the ones who couldn’t tended to struggle – and lose.
Vargas, for all his pre-fight talk and research, will likely fall into the second category. He’ll huff and he’ll puff, but in the end understand it takes more than hot air to knock over a fighter he deems fragile. From there, like Phil Lo Greco, he will find himself unable to avoid punches he neglected to take into consideration when plotting the holster-to-chin trajectory of his own life-changing Hail Mary shot. Toughness will succumb to talent and technique and Khan, still very much on autopilot, should cruise to a stoppage victory by the halfway mark of their 12-rounder.
The chief-support offering at Arena Birmingham is a British middleweight title fight, and rematch, between Jason
Welborn and Tommy Langford. The pair’s first fight in May was won by Welborn on a split-decision, despite suffering a perforated eardrum, and led to the coveted Lonsdale changing hands. That initial meeting took place at the Walsall Town Hall, while this one, the return, gets the big stage treatment; the stage it deserves.
Welborn, the current champion, is a shining example of perseverance and never-say-die spirit. Once written off following six career defeats, the Tividale native pulled himself together in 2017 and upset the unbeaten Marcus Morrison to win a WBC international title. A year later, he did something similar against Langford. Both times he was expected to lose; both times he refused to follow the script. Now a champion, Welborn, 32, has clearly learned from his mistakes and, because of this, is probably better than ever.
Langford certainly experienced a rejuvenated Welborn four months ago. That night, the 29-year-old from Birmingham was given a count in round two, when only the ropes kept him up, and suffered a cut above his left eye. Deemed a winner by two points on one of the three scorecards, he still fell short on the other two, and lost his British title.
Before that, Langford’s only other blip was a fifth-round stoppage against Avtandil Khurtsidze, the wild, heavyhanded Georgian who currently resides in a Brooklyn prison, while his career-best win is a toss-up between Sam Sheedy, for which he was awarded the British title, and Jack Arnfield, against whom he defended the belt earlier this year.
Langford, at 29, presumably still has ambitions beyond winning back his British title but knows he will have to be better than ever – certainly better than last time – if he’s to rip it from the hands of a determined Jason Welborn. Either way, it should be another close one. Also on the Birmingham card, Scott
Fitzgerald, 10-0 (7), gets a welcome step up in class against Craig Morris, 10-1-1 (3), over 10 rounds at super-welterweight, and Ryan Kelly, 11-1 (5), defends his Midlands Area super-welterweight title against the unbeaten Kelcie Ball, 9-0 (2).
Less intriguing, but important all the same, are a number of routine tune-up fights. Gamal Yafai, 15-1 (8), and Sam Eggington, 23-4 (15), both have 10-round bouts scheduled, and Lewis Ritson, 16-0 (10), is due to appear in an eight-rounder ahead of his European lightweight title shot in October. Those fights will all follow the latest outings for prospects Kieron Conway, 8-0 (3), Osman Aslam, 12-0 (4), Shakan Pitters, 6-0 (1), Qais Ashfaq, 2-0, Steven Donnelly, 1-0, and Sean Mccomb, 1-0 (1).
THE VERDICT Khan easing back towards contention.