Jessie Vargas, the champion, moved onto the Las Vegas press con centerstage on Wednesday a super rich shopper proud and raring to snatch a big knockout. He could hardly wait.
Sorry, the priceless good would not be available until fight time on Saturday, Nevada time. Tall and handsome in a moss-green suit, the reigning WBO welterweight titlist proceeded to score loud with his mouth. The 27-year-old Vargas cried he would be more than ready to clip and stop Sen. Manny Pacquiao with either his left or right hand.
He also tried to claim he could be invincible.
This blazing bravado was not expected of Vargas who, from the start, has been generally figured out as an inferior match to Pacquiao. The sudden flash of confidence, either suggested or personal, has definitely helped push popularity and sales for the championship, which took off with very little promise more than two months ago.
Vargas crying out wild has definitely heightened, even doubled, expectations for a brutal early ending to the championship, a happy twist that has brought back the smile on promoter Bob Arum’s old cunning lips.
Manny Pacquiao could not help but be amused.
The overworked neophyte senator has remained mum on how he would do battle, while trainer Freddie Roach said they’ve got to take control early. There was no mention of a possible stoppage on the part of Pacquiao, who scored his last knockout in 2009.
Of course, there has been a deafening clamor for a big KO, which must have risen louder following Vargas’ annoying flamboyance.
Will Pacquiao finally commit himself to a KO finish on the eve of the championship, maybe during the official weigh-in?
It’s like this. The call from President Rodrigo Duterte, a known Pacquiao fan and ally, for the fighting senator to finish off Vargas, did not come as a surprise. The fighting chief executive was honestly voicing the wish of the whole nation.
It would therefore not be right to call the Duterte wish a marching order.
Meanwhile, it would not take long before Jinkee Pacquiao, the senator’s lovely wife, would voice out her own wish.
The earlier the better, Mrs. Pacquiao told mediamen.
By the way, Dewey Cooper, the champ’s new trainer, has warned spectators they could end up disapppointed, claiming the younger Vargas, with his edge in height and reach, will give Manny much tougher time than anticipated. Cooper said Vargas will box Manny “like nobody else.”
Of course, they don’t know Pacquiao would rather die than disappoint the love of his life, who has been desiring nothing less than a red-hot early knockout.