FERNANDO VARGAS JR saw the look in his mother’s eyes after being sentenced to jail and knew he had to turn his life around.
The son of a former world champion was about to blow his chance at stardom after getting himself mixed up in the wrong crowd.
Fernando Vargas Jr opened up on being jailed before getting out to turn pro[/caption]
But after vowing to dedicate his life to boxing – even using mattresses in prison as a makeshift heavy bag – Vargas Jr got the second chance he needed.
The 28-year-old is one of three boxing prodigies – and the eldest son of former light-middleweight champ Vargas Sr.
But Vargas Jr was jailed at 21 and spent 13 months behind bars – never disclosing the reason behind his incarceration.
“I felt like I messed my whole life up. I never thought I’d get a second chance,” he said on the BURN FACTORY podcast.
“I went to court and then I would hear what they would say and I’m like, ‘What? Are you talking days? Months? Years?’ I was like, ‘Oh my God. I’m fighting some crazy thing.’
“Coming from the lifestyle that I come from – the dad – it was more embarrassing – than anything. I don’t come from that.”
Vargas Jr – who gave up his boxing aspirations while still an amateur – admits to falling into the round crowd while growing up in Southern California.
And he was left distraught after seeing his heartbroken mom in the courthouse.
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“I was in oranges and I was shackled up top to bottom and when I had to go back to see her face, just hopelessness,” he said.
Vargas Jr knew boxing was his way out and was not going to let anything stop him – even if he was behind bars.
The American punched rolled up mattresses and cellmates’ shower shoes as makeshift mitts to train.
“It really put me to a place where I was like, ‘I have to box.’ I told myself that when I was there,” Vargas said.
“I would roll up mattresses, people would hold it and I would hit it. I would do rounds, 30 seconds, people would have shower shoes.
“People thought, I’m sure like, ‘What is this guy doing?’ But I knew what was waiting for me.
“I got out and I was like, ‘I need to give my heart to boxing.’ There was no plan B.”
Vargas Jr got a job in excavation while on parole and would juggle a tiring work and training balance.
He was up at 4am to start his 5am shift before returning home at 2pm to sleep before getting to the gym at 6pm to box.
Emiliano Vargas, dad Fernando Sr, Fernando Jr and Amando[/caption]
Vargas Jr was often so tired from his schedule he would sleep in the toilets on the job – but he was finally committing to boxing.
“I didn’t wanna box it was just there if I wanted to do it,” he admits. “If I didn’t wanna do it. It was just nothing I really wanted to do.
“But once I got out, I got to last chance qualifiers, I won Golden Gloves and I just put my head down and started working.
“I would work and then I would box. I did that for about a year and look, here we are today.”
Vargas turned pro in 2020 and has built up a record of 17-0 as one of the 154lb division’s brightest prospects alongside brothers Emiliano and Amando.
But the biggest night of his young career comes on Saturday night in the chief support to Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
Vargas Jr faces 14-0 Irishman Callum Walsh – who is promoted by UFC boss Dana White – in the latest chapter of his storied life.
“I know with this opportunity that I’ve got September 13th,” he said.
“Everything that I went through, me crying in the shower by myself, everything I went through mentally was for this moment.
“This moment doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to me and I’m going to show that September 13th. I’m so excited.”
Callum Walsh faces Vargas Jr[/caption]
