2025 Prospect of the Year: Junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas
Plus reports on rest of the top 12 in order; past winners year-by-year
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Junior welterweight Emiliano Fernando Vargas is very much like his father and trainer Fernando Vargas, the two-time junior middleweight champion and one of boxing’s biggest stars of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
When Fernando was 21, he became the youngest ever to win a 154-pound world title in 1998. The sky was the limit. He had good looks and charisma to go with a fierce fighting style and an unquenchable youthful exuberance. He wanted to fight all the top fighters ASAP.
So, it came as little surprise when after drilling Alexander Espinoza in the first round in July that the 21-year-old Emiliano, also with good looks, charisma and a crowd-pleasing style, echoed his father’s desire from nearly 30 years ago.
“I’m ready for top, elite competition,” he said after that knockout. “My skills are going to show through.”
They very well may, but while Vargas is not quite ready to face top opposition yet, his team at Top Rank, which has been bringing him along at a steady pace, believes he eventually will be and that the payoff could be huge.
“I think the more experience he gets in the next year, year and a half the sky is the limit,” Top Rank Hall of Fame matchmaker Brad “Abdul” Goodman said. “I think he can be something special. We think he has the talent, but he needs three or four more fights and he needs rounds. But he can be ‘that guy.’ He has that it factor.
“He has the looks and he’s very marketable but at the end of the day, I believe he will get better and he will have the ability and the marketability, which is rare for a guy to have both.”
With his enormous potential combined with a 2025 campaign in which he was 4-0 — winning three by knockout inside two rounds before going the distance in his first scheduled 10-rounder in a near-shutout decision over Jonathan Montrel in November — Vargas is the Fight Freaks Unite Prospect of the Year.
The 5-foot-9, right-handed Vargas (16-0, 13 KOs), who is quite capable of fighting as a southpaw as well, like he often did as an amateur, is the youngest and most promising of Fernando’s three fighting sons. As an amateur he had a record of about 115-10 before turning pro in 2022.
In the pro ranks, he has shown good skills and movement to go with his power. He also studies the sport. Vargas began boxing at age 10 and as a teen he would watch fights and take notes.
“I’ve always been a student of the game,” Vargas said. “I’ve had a notebook of things. I can recall being 13 or 14 years old, watching sparring and analyzing things like, ‘I could’ve done this’ or ‘I could’ve done that.’ Just things along those lines. It was just part of the process of seeing how I could make myself more unbeatable every time.”
Make sure to check out the other 2025 award stories
· Fighter of the year
· Knockout of the year
· Fight of the year
· Female fighter & fight, round, trainer, manager, upset, story
While Vargas, who was born in Oxnard, California, and lives in Las Vegas, is hungry to get to the top as quickly as possible, Goodman said he not only wants to get him there but make sure he is prepared for a long stay.
“He still has a ways to go but each and every fight is going to be a step up,” Goodman said. “I want him to fight guys who are going to give him rounds and make him a more complete fighter.
“There’s no shame in taking your time. He’s young. There’s no rush. Him being a fighter, of course he wants to fight the top-notch guys now. But that’s why you have a manger and a trainer and a promotional company behind you, to be smart and take the right route. He just needs to be patient.”
As far as Vargas is concerned there is so only so long anyone can hold him back.
“I’m a young man on a mission,” Vargas said. “I just can’t wait to be back and give all the boxing fans excitement, like the way my father did. I’m all about staying busy, staying in the ring, and putting on hella performances every time I step in there.
“I’m just a Mexican kid trying to make it to the top. … I just want to continue to grow. At the end of the day, I know I’m young in my career, but at the same time, I know the big plans that we have. And I know God has greater plans. So, I’m just looking to keep my head down and keep on working.”
The rest of the best
(Name, record thru Dec. 31, division, age, hometown, promoter)
