Jessie Vargas wants Jaime Munguia after cut heals

Jessie Vargas technically hasn’t fought at super welterweight yet, but he’s not letting that slow him down. He tells ESPN that he wants a crack at WBO champion Jaime Munguia later this year.

The champ’s team seems to be down for it.

“He’s interested as well, because I spoke to him in Tijuana on the night that [Soto] beat Brandon Rios. He said it was a fight we could make,” Vargas said. “My promoter, Eddie Hearn, spoke to his [co-promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions], and they are very open to the idea and very interested as well. So it’s a fight that everyone seems on board for, and I know that the fans would like to see it.”

Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, which co-promotes Munguia with Zanfer, told ESPN that it is a fight his side is also interested in pursuing.

”It’s a good fight. I think the fans would really get behind it, but we’ll sit down with Munguia. He’s going to be here for the Canelo fight [on Saturday night],” Gomez said. “We scheduled a meeting to see what’s next. The last time I spoke to the kid, he was really disappointed with what happened in the [Dennis] Hogan fight. He felt that he let people down and in his head he was thinking rematch, so we have to sit down and talk to him and see what he’s thinking. We could still do a rematch. It’s up to him. We have a short list, but [Vargas] is a bigger name, better name.

”I love that fight. It’s makeable, very makeable. He’s got a good name, good record, ex-champion. Why not?”

Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KO) suffered a nasty cut in his TKO finish of Humberto Soto last week, which could delay this matchup until the fall. He’d previously drawn with Adrien Broner and Thomas Dulorme.

Munguia (33-0, 26 KO) is in need of a big win after controversially scraping past Dennis Hogan on April 13th. The WBO actually convened a judging panel to review the scores, but concluded that 115-113 Munguia was appropriate and denied an immediate rematch, meaning it’s Munguia’s choice whether to face Hogan again.

The two share a common opponent in Sadam Ali; Vargas stopped Ali in nine rounds, Munguia in four.

I’d be down for this matchup, honestly. Munguia is a fair bit bigger than Vargas, but has recently struggled to find the finish against lesser technicians than Vargas.