Jessie Vargas (pictured) and Liam Smith collide in a junior middleweight clash at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday April 30th, live worldwide on DAZN, leading the undercard for the historic world women's lightweight championship clash between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Vargas and Smith were originally due to meet this weekend in Phoenix, but coronavirus ruled Vargas out. Saturday’s bill will now be topped by Carlos Cuadras vs. Jesse Rodriguez in a super flyweight bout (also live worldwide on DAZN). Vargas (29-3-2 11 KOs) returns to the ring for the first time since his narrow reversal at the hands of Mikey Garcia in Texas in February 2020. The former WBO welterweight champion is training for this fight while running his political campaign to represent Nevada’s 4th Congressional District.
Smith (30-3-1 17 KOs) is coming off a quality win in his last outing, where he stopped local rival Anthony Fowler in eight rounds. With that win, Smith bouncing back in style from a loss in Russia to Magomed Kurbanov in May. The 33 year-old held the WBO title in 2015-16.
Vargas and Smith will come to the Big Apple all guns blazing, and both men believe they will end the career of the other on April 30th. “Thankfully I’m now through COVID,” said Vargas. “I want to show everyone I’m better than before, I’ve been working on things in the gym, so it’s not like I’ve had a two year lay-off.
“Liam is talking a lot, the fire is burning inside me. You don’t trash talk me, I’m coming in a different person. This will be an action-packed fight. I’ll exploit all of his weaknesses and take him out – My goal is to knock him out and retire him!
“I’m buzzing and proud to be fighting at Madison Square Garden,” said Smith. “It’s one I can tick off my bucket list now along with Las Vegas; MSG is the pinnacle of boxing and everything happens for a reason so I am happy to be heading to New York on April 30. The main event is fantastic, Katie is always in exciting fights, and I am sure there will be lots of British and Irish fans there that will be backing me too. This fight is an itch that has needed scratching for a long time now and I want to beat Jessie and beat him well and move on. I hope that he turns up fit and healthy this time as I am aiming to retire him and send him into politics. He wants to move into politics, and I will give him a reason to concentrate on that 100 per cent.
“Jessie stopping me? I find that highly unlikely when only one person has done that and Jessie is no Canelo Alvarez. I fully intend on stopping him, being the first man to do it and adding my name to the names that have beaten him.”
