The Shocking Truth About My World Title Win at 24 I Jessie Vargas DSH #469

Which one was tougher?

I think they're all tough in their own way.

The level of fulfillment after the first world title was very special to me.

It felt like a dream.

It felt like weight lifted from my shoulders after you're being recognized as the world champion, right?

So and I told myself when I was young, I said, I got to be champion by the time I'm 21, 24 at the latest.

And yeah, I did it at 24.

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All right, Jesse Vargas here today, professional boxer, man.

Now you're turning a new chapter in your life, right?

Yeah, that's right.

Well, first of all, thank you for having me.

What's up, Sean?

Absolutely, dude.

Great to see you, dude.

Yeah, same here.

Man, what can I say?

It's a pleasure to be here.

You know, I've had a good life, thankfully, and...

Still very young, so we still got a bright future ahead.

Yeah, quite the career, man.

And it sounds like you're still mentally sharp, which is great because with certain fighters, you see them kind of lose that, you know what I mean, once they retire.

Yeah, that's what they say, man.

They say that.

I'm just glad that I'm in a position where,

you know, I have numerous opportunities in front of me, or I can jump onto new opportunities in the future.

Yeah.

Whatever it is that I want to pursue, I guess it has become complicated for other athletes.

And, you know, I'm just, I'm just grateful.

I think overall, it's I blame it all on my family, right?

That's giving them all the

feedback for me as a child, as not a child, but as their child, right?

Because no matter how old you are, you always be your your parents' child.

But at the end of the day, it was, it was, I mean, I thank them for everything that they've done because that's they made me into the man I am now.

Yeah, talk to me about that family dynamic, especially growing up early.

Did you have their support in boxing from day one?

I did.

I mean, my father understood that I had to be occupied after school.

And he told me, you know what, Jesse, you gotta pick an after-school activity.

I started with soccer.

I enjoyed it, but I wasn't a big fan of running pretty often.

Once I noticed that in soccer,

you're not only running when you're playing soccer, but you're also running in the training sessions.

I thought, man, this is a lot.

I don't want to do this.

But I finished it.

I did well.

I had fun, but it was too much work.

Went into Taekwondo.

We didn't fight enough.

I mean, I advanced like orange belt, but

we wouldn't spar much.

We wouldn't fight much.

I thought, you know what?

This is boring.

Because I wanted to be like Vienna Dam.

At that time, it was John Claw Bad Dam.

He was in blood sport.

I was like, yo, that's cool.

I want to be like him.

But there wasn't enough action for it in me.

So in my dad, I asked him, hey, dad, I don't want this.

I want to do something else.

He took me to boxing.

And after that,

my father,

he bought a documentary once he saw that I was intrigued with the sport, right?

A documentary on Jules Chavez.

And it showed everything that he had accomplished, you know, how he was able to purchase a home for his mother through boxing.

made it into business right

i thought wow you can do this and you could i mean i love it so it's great, but you can make money off of it.

You can take care of your family.

You can make sure they don't ever have to worry about working a day in their life as well.

That's what I want.

I want to be a world champion.

I want to be famous.

And yeah, thankfully, I accomplished it.

Two-division world champion now.

And, you know, I've had numerous opportunities in front of me, thankfully.

Yeah, two divisions, man.

That's crazy.

So that's two different weight classes?

Yeah, two different weight classes.

I was champion at 140 pounds.

And then again, 147 pounds.

Wow.

So thankfully, it went well for me.

Which one was tougher, you'd say?

Good question.

I think they're all tough in their own way.

But I'd say

the level of fulfillment after the first world title was very special to me.

It was hard to make the weight.

It was a good fight.

And it just, it felt like a dream.

It felt like weight lifted from my shoulders after you're being recognized as the world champion, right?

Yeah.

You worked your whole life.

Yeah, the whole life, man.

I did it at 24, and on a stage, just was very special.

And I told myself when I was young, I said, I got to be champion by the time I'm 21, 24 at the latest, at the very latest.

And yeah, I did it at 24.

Wow.

Yeah, incredible, man.

It's amazing, man.

And was that fight the full, what is it, 12 rounds?

He went the full 12 rounds.

Yeah, I was fighting an undefeated Russian.

His name was Khabiba Legverdev.

He was a tough fighter.

He had just beat Joan Guzman for two different titles, the IBO world title and the WBA world title.

And yeah, I just had those two straps on my shoulders and I remember just looking up and wow, like it's done.

That's amazing.

Yeah, my father's been there every step of the way.

He's always supported me as we talked about earlier.

And he's the reason why I'd say that I was able to be successful through a lot of the input that I've gotten from him.

I mean, early on, I was going to stop boxing at the age of 15,

15 and a half, almost 16.

I wanted to work.

I wanted to make my own money.

I was always very proud over what I had.

right and um i told my dad dad i think i'm gonna quit because i i want to start working i want to start making money i want to take my girlfriend to the movies and my father says jesse but you love doing this and i tell him that i want to make money i don't want to keep asking you for money right to take it to the movies jesse listen you have two opportunities here okay you could be you could follow your dream and make money off of it all right because you're really good like i'm looking at all the other athletes the other fighters not as good as you everything comes easy to you should think about it.

And he tells me this: Jesse, just think about it like this.

All right, do you want to work the rest of your life, right?

And having to follow orders from somebody else?

Because that's what you're gonna have to do.

You're gonna work by somebody else.

You're gonna have to follow their orders, whatever they want.

You're gonna have a bad day, a good day doesn't matter.

Or do you want to follow your dream?

You want to make tons of money, retire early, and then never have to work a day in your life?

And that made me think.

I don't know what, like, what brought him to that idea to explaining that to me but it was so perfect and exactly what i needed to hear and ever since then i mean i just kept going i never stopped i love that man yeah that commitment how long were you undefeated for uh man i was undefeated all the way until 20

i'm not happy with that fight but 25 yeah so i became world champion i defended it then i jumped up a division to wall to wait yeah and um i remember that fight very well very vividly i was um i wasn't winning i remember that fight i just couldn't get off, man.

It was strange.

Felt off?

Yeah, dude.

That was like one of me.

Yeah, one of my fights, one of my only fights where I would say that that fight, I was just off.

Like, like my timing was off.

Like, I was trying to let my punches go, but I couldn't.

It was so strange, man.

Everything was delayed.

Do you think you overtrained and your body was kind of giving out a bit?

That could have been it.

Tell you what, this was my first time training in elevation, high elevation.

I trained in Mount Charleston.

And some people would tell me, leave two weeks before, right?

That way you can acclimatize to the the weather down here But I said no I feel great I feel good and I did I felt fantastic So I stayed there all the way to like just one week before the fight when I took out to LA

and It was that could have been it man.

I think it's I could have been overtrained.

Wow.

Yeah,

I can't prove it because I never went back to get that same feeling right.

I just said I'm never going back to elevation again

It was just frustrating, but I was losing the fight and I knew it.

So coming into the 12th round, I thought, all right, well, I'm losing this fight.

I just got to get him with one big punch.

Yeah.

I come in and I'm like, I get hit a couple times.

I found it.

Somehow, I found that big shot.

I landed right on his chin.

Had him out.

He was dancing all over the place.

And I'm going on the attack.

And then he grabs me.

And when he grabs me, I'm still punching.

The referee comes in and he waves it off.

I'm like, yeah.

So I'm out there, you know, just screaming.

Oh, my God.

It was an exciting moment.

I was up on the ropes.

And then like three minutes later, I see a lot of commotion in the ring.

And I'm thinking, what's going on?

Apparently, the referee later on, he says, well, I thought I heard the 10-second clicker.

10-second clickers, they do this.

Like, right after when the round is going to finish, 10 seconds remaining, they do the clickers.

And then the bell.

Well, he stopped it in 10 seconds.

He said, it's because I thought I heard the bell ring.

And he stole that from me.

What?

Yeah, that was a tough one.

Yes, I was at that time.

I was 25.

Damn.

It was frustrating, man.

So how did you overcome mentally?

You must have been...

That must have really messed you up, right?

You know what?

I try not to,

it was frustrating, but I tried not to let it get to me.

And everything negative, I tried to turn it into a positive.

So I thought, okay, I'm going to become world champion again.

Well, I actually fought the case.

I paid lawyers to get on that case and to fight it for him with the California State Athletic Commission to change the decision.

Damn.

Because we never finished the fight.

They never let me continue.

They stopped the fight with eight seconds remaining.

And he was hurt.

He was done.

And then we never finished the eight seconds.

right?

So, I was very frustrated.

Actually, I don't even talk about that fight because it's frustrating.

Damn, but um, yeah, I want to show that here.

Um, yeah, that happened.

Unfortunately, they couldn't change the decision.

My lawyers, you know, weren't successful in that area, and I just said, you know what, I'll just keep moving forward.

And the WBO, which was the title that we were fighting for in that fight, they saw the issues at hand at that time.

So, when they said, Tell you what, Jesse, we're going to give you another opportunity to fight for the world title against Saddam Ali.

Saddam Ali was a guy that no one wanted to fight with at that time.

How

he was tough.

He was a tough fighter.

He was an Olympian, a U.S.

Olympian, very athletic, talented athlete, fast, quick, explosive, elusive.

He was great, and I knew what I was in front of.

So I thought, yeah, this guy's good.

So I got to take this seriously.

I prepared, man.

I think that was the best preparation I've ever had.

And that's been the best performance I've ever had.

Wow.

Because mentally and physically, like, I was...

determined, focused, like nothing was, there was no way I was going to lose that fight.

I was so angry what had happened in the previous fight, the first first loss.

So I thought, it's not happening again.

And it's been my best performance to date.

I mean, I visualized it.

We practiced it over and over again.

And it worked out just as I thought.

I mean, a couple, you know, a couple little mistakes that maybe I didn't see in mind beforehand, but everything turned out.

You won that fight?

I did.

I won by knockout.

Damn.

Yeah, I won by knockout.

I mean, it was sensational, honestly.

Yeah, it was fantastic.

Incredible.

And then from there, you fought Manny shortly after that, right?

Yeah, we fought for that belt.

Yeah, so I won the WBO World Title in that fight against Adam Ali.

And then he came back.

He beat Miguel Cotto after I beat him.

So, I mean, he's a good fighter, great fighter, because Miguel Coto is one of the greatest Puerto Rican fighters there's ever been.

And then you have me fighting Manny Pacquiao.

And we went for a 12-round decision.

He was fast, man.

Very experienced.

I remember that very well.

The power was there or just the speed mainly?

To be honest with you, it was the speed that I think became difficult for me to really counter him, to figure him out, to put him down in one position and

get him with a counter or set him up somehow.

He was hard to figure out.

But I think it was the speed that really surprised me.

Yeah, but I mean, I wasn't very prepared for that fight as well.

I just didn't have the experience he had.

And yeah.

But I mean, it was a great experience.

It was,

you know, it was a great learning experience.

Right.

That's legendary.

I still remember watching him and Floyd fight when I was in high high school.

That was like a big deal.

I think it broke PPV records.

You did.

And I wanted him to win, but Floyd won, I think, both times.

Yeah, well, I mean, Floyd's, he's, I mean, they call him the best ever, right?

I think he's defensively the best ever, and he knows how to pick his moments, right?

He fights in spurts, and he makes sure that whenever you're trying to set him up, he's using that against you.

Right.

And he can identify that pretty quickly.

Yeah, he's great.

And he was my first promoter, actually.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, he's my first promoter.

He's great, man.

He's a great guy.

He takes care of his fighters well.

He took care of me well.

Nice.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a second contract going after that.

A lot of things were in the middle of it.

He was going through a few other circumstances at that time,

which led us to delay the next signing.

And yeah, so I just got impatient

for somebody else.

He's on the older side now, right?

He's almost 50.

Yeah.

Do you think you could take him one-on-one?

as a fighter we think that we can take on everybody

but um floyd is very intelligent i mean he's 50 now so you gotta keep that in mind you know i'm a lot younger but um he's he's gonna fight manny pacquia again in an exhibition i saw that who you got winning that one

i think i think floyd takes it yeah i mean it'd be a good one again i mean they're both a little older um

Manny hasn't been in the ring in a while.

I think he's going to do an exhibition soon in Thailand or something, right?

Yeah, we'll see how he looks and that.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see.

But

who would I pick over that?

I'd say

Floyd has more in him.

Yeah.

In my opinion.

50-0, dude.

It's hard to bet against that.

Exactly.

Yeah.

All right.

I want to dive into the issue with baby mamas.

You got an interesting take on this in regards to baby mamas with professional athletes.

And you probably even witnessed this, right?

Yeah, well, I mean, me being a professional athlete and successful at that one,

I've been able to learn from others, from others' mistakes.

It's never easy once you're in that situation.

You know, you got to pick the right one.

I mean, having kids out of wedlock is very, very difficult, not only for athletes, everyone in general, and for the child, most importantly.

I think

who's it more difficult for is for the child in the long run, right?

Because if they don't have good co-parenting skills,

you know,

good communication, the child is later on going to have, you know, some type of resentment

against either one or the other, whether it be for because of the truth or because of the lies.

Yeah,

it's tough.

But overall, in athletes, that I can talk about, and I'd say, you know, we definitely got, we jumped the gun sometimes,

you know, having kids too early.

We don't take care of each other as much in that area, right?

I would suggest for all athletes to make sure, to be patient and make sure that you pick the right one.

That when you you have a child, it's because you're ready to settle down, because you're ready to found the woman who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

I know it sounds cheesy, it sounds right, you know, not like it's coming from a professional athlete, but in reality, that's the truth.

I've learned it right from personal experience, from my friends' experiences.

There's nothing better than waiting for the right one and having your kids at the right time.

Again, the kids, you know, they're the ones losing at the end.

They're the ones that are mainly going through trouble as they grow up because you weren't ready or she wasn't ready, or because the baby mama is trying to take advantage of the pockets that the other guy has, or vice versa.

If the woman is the moneymaker and the guy is trying to get the money,

either way it goes, I'd say that you got to understand that when you date somebody, that

when an athlete is dating,

I'm going to put it in a nice way.

Yeah, tell you what, you got to,

it's just hard to it's a hard subject to touch.

But I'll give you an example.

There was a friend of mine who,

very close friend of mine, and we're speaking, and he's telling me his issues.

I was like, man, my baby mama,

she called me crying and telling me not to take the child away from her.

Right?

I'm never going to do that.

You know, I told her since I was a kid, that's what he says.

I told her.

that, you know, I want her to spend time with you and with me, you know, with Button.

And the only deal here is for you never to take my child away from me.

Right?

They never had nothing in papers.

The child's, I don't know, she must be five, six years old.

Just a verbal agreement.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so they go to court later on after they had that conversation.

Again, this woman called him crying.

Right.

I can't, you know, please don't take my child away because the child was with him from Monday through Friday.

And every now and then on Saturday and Sunday, she'd be with her mom.

Right?

Got it.

For some reason, all the way to when she was six months to like five, five and a half, she was with the dad, basically,

85% of the time.

And

so the dad, my friend at that time, he

says, of course, I'm not going to take my daughter away from you.

Don't worry about that.

And they went to court.

He gave her everything.

He gave her, he thought he was doing like, was it co-parenting, you know?

But no, he gave her all the rights.

He gave her full control.

Wow.

Yeah, just like that.

It's fine.

I mean, you're just letting me see my daughter and that's it.

And shortly after, like six, eight months after, like, no, you're not seeing your daughter today.

Wow.

Yeah, and then it started like that.

And then he would tell me, and I'd feel bad for him.

I said, man, just be patient, you know, and talk to her.

And then,

yeah, later on, she's asking for more money and more money.

And then always trying to go for him for more money.

It's like, it's all she does.

Because, I mean, she wasn't well off, right?

She had a hard job.

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She grew up in poverty.

She was already left with another baby daddy.

The baby daddy left and just left her to take care of that child.

So basically, she wasn't doing well financially.

So at the end of the day, everything she does from that point on, once she got that moneymaker, like everything she learned, she researched, how can i take advantage of him how can i get more money this is a person that was calling crying please don't do it of course not the guy says no it's fine it's fine money changes people man boom yeah it may sound like a boring story but it just it just shows you how people can change so quickly and easily for money yeah right um and i think athletes we athletes have to make sure that when we do commit to having a child it's because we're ready to settle down we're ready to have a relationship with this woman and she knows exactly where we're coming from she knows that all right we're gonna be busy making the money but we need you at home home or

whatever the case you have with her, right?

If you work, all right, who's going to babysit my child?

Everything has to be planned out to perfection because, I mean, I think in my point of view as a professional athlete and as a man in life,

the biggest fulfillment in life is to be able to have a family and then have your children, in my point of view, have your children want to come back.

when they're 20, 25, 28, like calling your dad,

would you like to go grab coffee?

You want to hang out?

Whatever the case is, right?

I mean, to me, that's the biggest fulfillment in life is that's when you know you did a good job with your family.

That's a good sign, and that's so true because some people after college, they never come home.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, they never come home.

And,

you know, that's thankfully, that's not my case, right?

But again, I've seen numerous situations where things don't go as perfectly as they thought.

Yeah, it's tough, man, especially for pro athletes because they got hundreds, thousands of girls hitting them up on social media.

And it's tempting, right?

Because they all look good.

But like you said, you got to pick the the right one.

You got to pick the right one, man.

And after a while, I'm sure a lot of athletes have seen this already, but you know,

you see a beautiful girl here, there.

I mean, after a while, it's just like, all right, well, they're all beautiful, but what's different?

Like,

let's understand them for who they are.

The person, let's enjoy their company.

That's the most important thing in my point of view.

But that's, again, that's probably me.

I see it now because, you know, I'm a little older, wiser.

But when I was young, I just wanted to have fun, hang out here, hang out there.

Yeah.

And,

well,

fun and focus on my career.

So I'd focus on my career, but on my off time, you know, I hung out with friends and, of course, I dated.

You know, I mean, I have my own beautiful child as well.

So I kind of, I've been living, and now I understand, all right, you know what?

These are my errors here.

All right.

How can I better them?

How can I make sure not to make that same mistake?

You know, that's in the position that I'm in now.

I mean, I lived life.

very quickly, right?

I've learned a lot in the process.

I had a lot of success.

I've made a lot of mistakes also, right?

I don't want to say downfalls but i say i've had a lot of you know um you know a situation where i just learned from and make sure to make me a better man yeah you said you've learned more in the past four years than your whole life right i'd love to dive into that yeah man i mean going back to what we were saying that i

i

focused on the gym becoming world champion every now and then hang out with my friends becoming world champion again fighting for another world title getting the biggest fights possible what's the biggest money what biggest purse in the next fight you know it's it's it's all business, business, business.

All right, let's have some fun.

All right, business, business, business.

All right, let's have some fun.

But

through that business matter, it was only my father, myself, of course,

my mother.

So almost family, and that's it.

And then every now and then, you know, I'd hang out with some friends.

That's the occasion of having fun.

So then once I'm not fighting as often, I'm not focused and fighting anymore.

That's like 20, 20.

All right, I'm having some fun.

I'm meeting a lot of people.

I'm going out a lot, a lot more than I used to.

So

at that time, I started meeting new people and just getting new friends.

You know, this guy's cool.

Oh, this guy's cool.

He's my friend.

So, man,

we start seeing each other very often.

But, man, in that process, I've learned so much because some people are going to rip you off.

Not rip you off.

I don't use that word.

Some people...

will use you to make money.

Some people will trick you

to make money off of you.

Some people will

lie to you.

Some people will say something that they're not.

And so many things kind of, for me, just made me open my eyes.

Like, oh, this is the real world.

Real world.

This is the real world.

I mean, if you're not on top of it, you're going to be left with nothing.

Yeah.

Right.

And that's when I realized, okay, this is what my dad's been talking about.

This is what my dad is so private.

This is what my dad, you know, is...

is somewhat he's somewhat exclusive you know it's all right he's wise so why don't i use that experience and then take it up, step it up a notch?

Yeah, again, I mean,

I hope I don't make any more mistakes, but that's that's not a part of life, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Mistakes are necessary, man.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say next, actually.

Yeah, because I've learned the most through my mistakes, right?

So, once you commit the actual mistake, you're saying yourself, you're thinking, all right, well, you know what?

Let me make sure not to do that again.

And then you go from there, and I'd say, man, it's been a tough four years, but it made me grow up quick, man.

Again, I mean, as an athlete, you'll focus on, you know, your sport, and then my boys know, my friends know, like, having fun.

I mean, football players, fighters, you know, there's some rare occasions like son of God, which is Andre Ward.

Yeah.

He's very, very disciplined at all times, but he retired undefeated.

Wow.

And he made lucrative paychecks.

So, I mean, that's the reason why he's where he is, right?

I mean, again, I've had ups and downs, but, you know, that explains to me why, right?

Because he, and then going back to him that's he retired on defeat even that explains why he was very focused determined never let his foot off the gas I had ups and downs I'd say because there was times where I wasn't as focused when I should have been right right and my dad always told me Jesse you got to make sure you stay focused come on man and he's always on my case and as you grow up you get to understand okay that's what my dad was talking about that's what or not just your dad it could be somebody that just you know wants to influence you in the right way And then you'll understand later in life through the experiences that you commit.

Absolutely.

And I think to get to the top of any space, whether it's boxing, business, you know, entertainment, how much are you willing to sacrifice?

You know what I mean?

That's the question.

If you're willing to sacrifice almost everything, you'll have a good chance of getting to the top.

100%.

Yeah, that's well said.

Well said.

I mean, once you commit to it and you put everything else aside, you can accomplish it.

But then again, you got to see how

you got to ask yourself, how important is it for me to accomplish this?

Because everything else is going to have to wait in the meantime.

It's very hard to divide time between one career and another.

That's another thing that I've learned also.

I was trying to fight and do other things at the same time.

And unfortunately, I wasn't successful at either.

It's a full-time job.

Yeah, it is.

It is a full-time job.

And then once you start dividing both careers or

juggle both things, it's very difficult.

Yeah, and you see people that go after so many different business opportunities at the same time and they just follow the money, follow the money, but it usually doesn't pan out because they're not focused.

Yeah.

Well said.

Well said, unfortunately, for some.

But, I mean, again, I mean,

I'm focusing a little more time just to kind of help others, right?

And hopefully, you know, my experiences, others can learn from and, you know, just kind of keep an eye out for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's your take on this influencer boxing wave?

Because you're a pro boxer, so I'm curious how you feel about it.

Tell you what, man.

With certain influencers, I enjoy it myself.

I'll watch it and check them out.

But we just got to understand two things is there's a difference between fight the fighters that are influencers who coming into boxing and then actual world champion fighters or actual fighters that have been doing it all their life.

It's two different categories, right?

Because

it's two different levels to it.

These are novice athletes, novice fighters that are just getting into it.

You put them into it into the ring against

a guy that's 5-0 or even 5-5, 5-wins, 5-losses, but has a extensive amateur career.

He'll beat up the influencer.

It's just different, right?

Two different levels.

But they're bringing in a large fan base.

And bringing in a large fan base, I'm sure, I mean, once they bring, they sell out like KSI, I think he sold out a couple stadiums.

I'm sure out of those people that attended that fight, maybe 20%

actually will start watching real boxing.

Oh, it's pretty high.

Yeah, it's high, right?

It's higher than I thought it was, yeah.

Yeah?

Well, I mean, this is just assumption.

This is no facts.

I'm just assuming, say, say, 20% maybe.

Or

they'd entertain the idea of watching a professional fighter.

Like, oh, we saw Logan Paul.

Let's watch this one.

Let's watch Manny Pacquiao.

We watched KSI.

Let's watch this one.

So maybe it brings in more fans.

That's what I think.

I think that it grows the sport.

So in a way, it's good.

But then again, there's fighters like

Jake Paul.

He's a fighter that actually I respect because he's really good.

I mean, for him, just to start like a few years down the line, I think he must have started in 2019, 2020.

For him to pick it up and do it it so quickly and do it so well at this moment, I'm impressed.

I applaud him for what he's doing.

You can show it.

He's dedicated.

And it goes back to what you're saying, right?

You dedicate your time to one thing.

You could advance pretty quickly.

And that's what he's doing.

I mean,

he went the full, what, eight rounds with Tommy?

That was impressive.

That was.

I thought Tommy was going to beat him easy, but it wasn't that easy for Tommy, man.

Tommy got caught.

Yeah, he got caught a couple times, right?

Yeah, and this is a guy who's been doing this since he was a kid.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And he's not a bad fighter.

I mean, he's not great, but not bad, right?

He's good.

I'd say he's his dad.

His dad is the goat, though, right?

Yeah.

His dad is something else.

And his brother, of course, he's, I think he may, he has the chance of going down as the best heavyweight fighter.

Maybe not ever, but because you got Muhammad Ali.

But yo, man, he's a great fighter.

He's so big.

He must be close to 280 or something.

I think if he wins a couple more, he's probably there, honestly.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, he's elusive.

He's so big and heavy, but he looks a little chubby, but this guy can hit.

This guy's fast.

You know, he can move lightly on his feet.

I think he's one of my favorite heavyweight fighters.

Although, his last fight wasn't as entertaining as I expected it to be.

He fought against Ngano, and Nganu put him down.

He did.

Yeah, that's it.

People thought Nganu won that fight.

Yeah, a lot of people thought so.

I thought it was competitive.

Yeah.

Yeah, very competitive.

But, I mean, that's the thing.

I mean, even he said it himself, Tyson Very says, man.

You don't go up against Wilder, which is another fighter who you went against three times.

You don't go up against wilder and come out the same fighter same guy like basically insinuating like after receiving some of that punishment you can't expect to be the same guy like you get older you know you get punched a couple times and the chin isn't the same yeah you get some permanent damage from those knockdowns for sure yeah i would assume so yeah right um i would assume you just you're not as durable as you once were i'm curious what a brain scan would look like on some of these guys man Yeah, I mean, that'd be interesting.

Well, I mean, I know they've done some on football players because they're just as bad.

Even worse, some of them.

Yeah, because, I mean, this is, you got two guys that weigh 200, 50, 300 pounds, and they collide head-to-head.

Head-to-head isn't as common.

It's illegal, right?

But I'm sure it happens from time to time in practice or in some of the games.

When they collide face-to-face or head-to-head, man, I could just imagine the neurons that are being shaken up in that area.

That's a lot of ways.

That's a big impact.

I mean, a lot of concussions

occur in that sport.

I mean, boxing as well.

Did you get any?

Thankfully not.

Wow.

Yeah, thankfully.

Thankfully not.

Yeah, I've been, you know, my dad always incentivized me to have a good defense in my sport.

Yeah.

And he was adamant about it.

And, you know, I guess it worked out.

That's probably why you can articulate so well still because most boxers get tons of concussions, you know?

Yeah, thank you, man.

I mean, again, I mean,

I push it over to my dad and say, man, I give him the credit, right?

I mean, because I just like to fight.

I remember as a young kid,

no, not even a young kid.

I mean, when I was a teenager, when I was early pros i was savage man i remember that i

just come up and i said all right i'm gonna i'm gonna hurt this guy literally i come up and i hit him hard every time i hit him i feel in my fist i'm like yeah damn you were a psychopath out there yeah and i'd look at him and i kind of like even when i got him with a good punch i kind of nod his face

like you felt that you know playing mind games too yeah i did that at times as well wow so you had a lot of anger as a kid

uh that's a good question actually you know what

i I didn't.

Oh, yeah?

No.

But then again, maybe it was boxing what got it out of me.

Okay.

Right?

So always, I was,

I recall just being quiet, firm, whatever I say goes.

Or no,

I guess not that bad, but you know, just I was firm, I was quiet, right?

And

how can I say that?

Were you like starving?

Because I went to the gym every day.

Monday through Friday and sometimes on Saturdays.

But Saturday and Sunday, for the most part, I'd work with my father.

He had a little store and I'd work with him.

That's how I learned how to make my money.

And so I was always very busy.

So it's not like I had time to be into trouble.

I just didn't like nobody messing with me.

This is the way I was.

I was quiet.

I was firm.

I said, nobody messing with me.

I don't mess with anybody.

People respected you.

You were like that quiet kid that no one messed with at school.

You know what I mean?

That was me.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and I was cool with everybody.

So, man,

keep going, right?

Yeah.

Cool with the girls, right?

It was nice.

And then the sport, I was just focused and determined.

determined.

That was like my way to be out.

Like talking to my friends before the workout and then get into it hard.

But once I got in, I didn't like anybody talking to me.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So that was me, man, growing up.

I love that, Jesse.

It's been fun, dude.

Where can people find you?

Yeah, man.

Well, Jesse Vargas underscore.

Thank you for all your support.

And just be ready for what's next.

Yeah, that's me.

You're commentating now, right?

Yeah, I'm commentating.

I'm doing, yeah, this fight actually.

There's going to be a fight this week and on Saturday, Saturday, which is going to be a good one.

They're going to have me as a commentator.

It's going to be entertaining.

So, I mean, I started commentating when I was, I was actually, it's a funny story.

You have time for it?

Yeah, yeah.

So, when I was 24, I was world champion at that time.

I was in Macau.

I was defending my world title against Antonio DeMarco.

Good Mexican fighter.

And I remember it was so difficult for me to make weight for that fight.

And I'm there.

The main event is going to be Manny Pacquiao against Chris Algieri.

ESPN,

Univision Deportes, comes to me and they say, hey, Jesse, would you be able to interview Manny Pacquiao?

Would that interest you?

I've never done this before.

But at that time, I'm thinking,

how much you paying?

First thing, first quick, how much you paying?

All right, I said, all right, cool.

Yeah, I can do that.

Yeah, sure, why not?

At that time, I thought, it's going to keep me busy.

I'm not going to think about eating.

That's all I was thinking about that week.

And I'm going to have to look over the script.

It's perfect.

I'll do it.

And not only did I have to interview them, I had to translate it.

And then I did it really well, so much to the point that Bean Sports hired me shortly after as a commentator.

Yeah, HBO hired me as a commentator.

Yeah, Dazone, I worked with ESPN.

So thankfully, I mean, a lot of opportunities have came.

And I'm just thankful that

I was able to challenge myself.

Because I think that through challenging myself, new opportunities have come.

I mean,

it wasn't easy, right?

It might come too easy, but you got to do research, You got to do your homework, right?

And anything we do, we got to do our homework, what it takes to be in that position.

And then, yeah, you execute.

Yeah.

And thankfully, it's worked out for me.

You know, I don't shy away from a challenge.

Yeah, I love that, man, because there's opportunities that present themselves daily.

And most people would have turned that one down and looked to where it's leading now.

And there's commentators like Skip Bayless making tens of millions, dude.

So I can't wait to see where you take that.

Big money.

Thank you, man.

Right now, I'm doing it as a freelancer.

I work here from time to time.

I was just in Nicaragua working there.

But, I mean, as you said, I mean, it's something that I can pick up, you know, pick up well and make you know a substantial amount of money but overall

to be honest with you this may sound bad but i love my sport but it comes so easy to me that i choose to do something a little different a little more challenging because i know that's when i will feel like a different level of success most when you do something yeah exact more fulfillment it's like something new something that was completely strange to you right it was foreign and then you just became you know very familiar with it and at my age it'd be fantastic so hopefully you know that's that's the way.

Absolutely.

We'll redo the outro, man.

So, where can people find you?

Yeah, hey, follow me on Jesse Bargas underscore.

And thank you for your support.

And I'm sure I'll see you around at some point.

Awesome.

Thanks for coming on, brother.

Thanks for watching, guys.

And I'll see you tomorrow.