Jessie Vargas is confident he'll beat Manny Pacquiao. 'I'm the champion ... he's the challenger'

Jessie Vargas is confident he’ll beat Manny Pacquiao. ‘I’m the champion ... he’s the challenger’

Jessie Vargas arrives at the Wynn Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Nov. 2, 2016 1:55 PM PT

If Jessie Vargas’ chin is as sensitive as the thin skin he showed this week in discussing his first title defense, his welterweight reign and his Saturday night main event fight against Manny Pacquiao will each be brief events.

Vargas, 27, won the vacant World Boxing Organization welterweight title against Sadam Ali in March.

“I have everything for [Pacquiao],” Vargas told a reporter at a Monday workout in Las Vegas. “I want it more than he does. I have everything to come out victorious — the strength, the speed, the youth.”

Though Vargas (27-1, 10 knockouts) has taken heart from his pairing last year with trainer Dewey Cooper, he is not too removed from a jeered split-decision victory over Riverside’s Josesito Lopez in 2011, from being knocked down by Wale Omotoso in 2013 and from being out-classed by Timothy Bradley Jr. in June 2015.

“My team has helped me improve in many factors — speed, power, experience, the mental game; how I see the fight game is different,” Vargas told The Times during a telephone interview. “They’ve helped bring out the best in me.”

Vargas is also confident because he’s 10 years younger than Pacquiao and possesses four-inch advantages in height and reach.

Is that enough, however, to beat the Hall of Fame-bound Pacquiao, who’s won the same WBO belt Vargas wears on three prior occasions and is said by his trainer and sparring partners to be performing near peak fighting form in training camp?

“I am ready to defeat Manny Pacquiao. Dude, I’m the champion of the world,” Vargas said. “What do you want me to say? He’s the challenger.”

This challenger has won a record seven major belts in different divisions, is coming off a convincing two-knockdown victory of Bradley in April and has a burning reason to win: a second shot at Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year.

Mayweather, who formerly promoted Vargas, heaped rare praise on Pacquiao last month.

“Out of all the fighters I’ve faced throughout my career, Pacquiao is one of the best,” Mayweather told FightHype.com. “His movement … I mean, he’s fast … the power comes from the legs and how he turns his shots.”

Members of Pacquiao’s camp had a heard-it-all-before reaction to Vargas’ confident talk about his chances on a conference call with reporters last week.

“Whatever [Pacquiao’s side] says doesn’t matter,” Vargas said.

“Listen man, I had a great training camp. I dropped sparring partners that not even Floyd was able to drop when he trained for Pacquiao. I’m ready.”

After HBO rejected Nov. 5 as a pay-per-view date because it has the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward light-heavyweight title pay-per-view bout on Nov. 19, fight promoter Bob Arum made Pacquiao-Vargas a pay-per-view bout handled by his company, Top Rank.

And the handsome, bilingual Vargas has been a busy pitchman, selling a story of deserving more respect and avenging the Mexican legends who lost to Pacquiao: Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.

“I’m fighting for that kid in me who says, ‘You beat my idols, and now I’m going to beat you,’” Vargas said when the bout was announced.

Said Arum: “Jessie’s been great … I’ve never seen a fighter work so hard selling a fight, particularly with the Hispanic media.”

Cooper said Vargas’ intelligence won’t let him be done in by carrying a chip on his shoulder.

“All you can do for Pacquiao is prepare, train and create the right game plan to know you’re ready,” Cooper said. “We know he’s awkward, that he has an off-beat two-step rhythm. We’re ready for all those things. I trust my champion, trust his reflexes, his skills, his instincts.”

The task now for Vargas is to overcome 8-to-1 odds against him at the Nevada sports books.

Saturday is “when my legacy begins,” Vargas said.

“A fighter is a fighter and once they’re in the top five in the world, you can’t say one might not be ready,” he said.

“I’m a two-division world champion. Do you not understand that?”

With that, Vargas was done talking, pitching the phone into his publicist’s chest, declaring, “no respect,” and walking away.

“We have a gym full of writers and television people, so maybe it’s overwhelmed him,” Arum said.

Or maybe it’s the nearing reality of Pacquiao.

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