Vargas to Defend His Title Against Antonio DeMarco in Macau, China

Jessie Vargas is preparing to make an Asian invasion in the fight to keep his belt…

The 25-year-old Mexican-American Junior welterweight boxer will defend his title for the second time when he fights former lightweight titleholder Antonio DeMarco on November 22 in Macau, China.

Jesse Vargas

The fight will open the televised portion of the HBO PPV card headlined by welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) defending against Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Macao.

Vargas will be making the second defense of his secondary title — Danny Garcia is the champion — and will be facing his third consecutive left-hander.

Vargas claimed the belt by winning a slightly controversial decision against Khabib Allakhverdiev of Russia on April 12 on the undercard of Pacquiao’s rematch with Timothy Bradley Jr. Vargas made his initial defense on August 2, outpointing another Russian southpaw, then-undefeated Anton Novikov, in an exciting fight.

Now Vargas (25-0, 9 Kos) has DeMarco (31-3-1, 23 Kos) of Mexico, to deal with.

“My opponent Antonio Demarco is a tough, rugged fighter who comes to fight,” Vargas said. “I know this will be a fight that fans throughout the world will enjoy. This is very exciting for our team to be part of an event of this magnitude. I plan on bringing my world title belt back to Las Vegas.”

Since getting knocked out in the eighth round and losing his lightweight world title to Adrien Broner in November 2012, DeMarco has won three fights in a row, all as a welterweight.

He is coming off a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision against Lanardo Tyner on August 23, a fight in which DeMarco got knocked down in the first round but dominated the rest of the way.