Vargas says he can knock out Khan in single punch
SAMUEL Vargas has guaranteed that he needs to land clean on Amir Khan just once to knock him out.
Vargas faces Khan in Birmingham on September 8, with the Bolton boxer making his return following his destructive 39 second knockout win against Phil Lo Greco in April.
Vargas insists it won’t be a similar result, and says Khan is in for a big shock if he thinks it will be.
He said: “If I touch him on the chin, he’s going down. That’s a guarantee.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a 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. It’s there, everyone knows it’s there.
“If he’s expecting another 39 second blow out then 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.” PEP Guardiola said Aymeric Laporte had been ‘amazing, amazing’ in his first City training session, and the defender wowed opposition boss Tony Pulis in his first game.
But, pointedly, both men were talking about his prowess as an attacking player.
As the Blues spend most of their time firmly on the front foot, that is the prime requisite for a Guardiola defender – even his goalkeeper gets assists these days.
Where the question marks remain over Laporte are when he is called upon to defend.
And perhaps his worst moment in a City shirt has gone largely overlooked – and you wonder if Pep’s army of video analysts spotted it.
If they did, Laporte might have been dumped by Guardiola for the foreseeable future!
It came when the £57million man was asked to do a job at left-back in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg at Anfield, Guardiola nervy about using Fabian Delph against Mo Salah.
It backfired spectacularly when he, Kompany and Otamendi were all forward for a set piece when Leroy Sane gave the ball away and the Scousers counter-attacked.
Laporte can be seen jogging back as Mo Salah exploits the space left by his absence.
With other players busting a gut to get back and cover, Laporte was not even in the picture when Salah finished the move.
He was also partially at fault for the third goal, showing Salah onto his lethal left foot – which the Egyptian promptly used to find the head of Sadio Mane.
The record signing was dropped for the derby a few days later, but was back in a three-man defence for the return leg against Liverpool, when he was nutmegged by man for Liverpool’s equaliser.
And it did not seem to impact his popularity with Guardiola at all, as he started five of the last six league games.
It was perhaps another sign of how attacking prowess overrules defensive frailty for Guardiola – and how it can affect you when you play the best teams. That is perhaps the manager’s biggest challenge this season – to show that in the Champions League, as in the Premier League, positivity can overcome pragmatism. Laporte’s first act in a blue shirt, in his debut against West Brom, was to arrow a 50-yard crossfield pass to Bernardo Silva who, naturally, took it under control in one fluid movement and was after his full back. Baggies boss Alan Pardew was impressed, saying in his postmatch press conference: “I thought he was terrific. “His passing from left to right was a problem for us. “I’ve got bad news for other Premier League managers – they’ve got another asset, not just a defensive one but an offensive one too with his passing.” But when the tougher games have come along, some of Laporte’s Alan Pardew defending looks raw – maybe it has been a case of adapting to the pace and physicality of the Premier League.
With Kompany’s Lazarus-like resurrection, Otamendi’s evolution into a fine stopper and John Stones’ return to form, City are in good shape at the heart of their defence.
Laporte and Stones are seen as the pair who will take this young City team forward – the former is one day older than the latter, and against Arsenal they were excellent.
Selecting them as the starters at the Emirates sent out a clear message that the old guard would need to fight to be selected – and Otamendi has been the odd man out so far.
Laporte has started both league games and performed well, and that ability to switch play is something that Guardiola values highly in his centre backs.
He even converted Aleks Kolarov from a left-back into a ball-playing central man, largely because he valued his left-footed passing.
When the Serb left City, it was of his own volition, and Laporte was effectively a replacement.
Like Kolarov, Laporte has to show he can defend as well as attack.