Special Edition of ESPN2 "TNF" tonight 10pm EST: Jessie Vargas vs. Aaron Martinez

This is Vargas' debut under the Top Rank banner after jumping ship from erstwhile promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Bob Arum has managed to get him an immediate TV date and find an opponent with an appealing risk to reward ratio. On the surface, the switch would appear to be a short-term boon for the Vegas-based dual citizen Mexican-American.

In terms of name value, Martinez may not at first seem like a step up from the faded Stevie Forbes. He's put together a solid run since his lone career loss three years ago, however, culminating most recently in a fan-earning eight-round bulldogging of boxing's wannabe clown prince Prenice Brewer (who'd became infamous a few months earlier after an equally clear loss to Ronald Cruz with an embarrassingly delusional outburst where he cried robbery and then verbally attacked NBC Sports color commentator Freddie Roach for criticizing his performance, telling Roach he DKSAB and shouting "Manny Pacquiao is on steroids!!"). Ignore the scorecard from Tim Cheatham; that was no SD. Even Jarman and Ross had it too close.

Martinez is a strong kid, and has the basics down, but his punches sorely lack velocity and power as evident in his paltry 20% KO rate. So it's another safe non-puncher, sort of picking up where Mayweather had left off in matching Vargas against Forbes after hard-charging Josesito Lopez had given him a scare and taken some of his shine. Vargas needs to outclass Martinez if he wants to keep viewers - and Arum - impressed & interested in bothering to invest further time in him.

Other prospects who might get a little showcase airtime on the card include: lightweight Luis "Artesano" Cruz on the comeback trail against unbeaten Jose Felix Jr., hard-hitting light middleweight Mikael Zewski against Xavier "X-Man" Tolliver (the 'world-class American' they flew down to Oz to get smacked around by Mundine and raise his international stock a while back :yep), lightweight Terence Crawford, and heavyweight Andy Ruiz Jr. who's been turning heads with his skills despite his Butterbean physique.

 

...I guess nobody cares.

 

I'm not sure Jessie is wishing he was up against Canelo.

Nor was he probably even jealous of throwing down with Ortiz.

He's still got some things to work on.

 

:good

It can be a very precise and delicate art, matchmaking. Martinez is no bum and is respectable enough that it doesn't appear they're coddling Vargas, but at the same time it's a "safe" option with the reasonably expectation that Jessie won't be getting rocked & socked like he did against Josesito.

The probable co-feature is also a well-made match. Cruz needs to build confidence back up after the tough loss to MiniBurgos, so they're not going to throw him in with any high-level bangers. This Jose Felix Jr. kid - who also happens to use the ring name "Josesito" himself - has been crushing cans like mad, but is taking a massive step up here. It's a chance for Cruz to prove he can still outclass someone dangerous and if he does he takes someone's zero (even if it was padded).