UniMas Quick Pick

Jessie Vargas vs. Ray Narh: This Friday night features a 10 round bout in the welterweight division between skilled boxer Jessie Vargas (22-0, 9 KO) and slugger Ray Narh (26-3, 21 KO).  Clearly Vargas has the higher ceiling and brighter future but he will have to be very sharp if he doesn't want to get knocked out by Narh.  Vargas has fast hands and moves around the ring very well which will be important against Narh who is much slower but much more powerful.  Vargas is cut from the same cloth as Paulie Malignaggi, he is highly skilled and has a high boxing IQ but he can't punch his way out of a wet paper bag.  Narh should find it difficult to catch Vargas because he doesn't have great foot movement and his hands aren't all that fast but if he can cut off the ring and keep Vargas against the ropes he should be able to knock him out.  However Narh needs to be careful even if he were to hurt Vargas because all of his three losses have come by the way of knockout so if he goes in for the kill Vargas may be able to turn the tables and drop him.  Although this fight could be intriguing if Narh can keep it at close range that will be very hard to do.  Vargas is 11 years younger than the 35 year old Narh which should make the difference in speed even more noticeable.  Also Narh last fought in August, a fight he lost via 7th round technical knockout so Vargas as his team may be viewing this as a showcase fight.  If Vargas were to look impressive on Friday then a fight against a bigger name opponent in the division should be in his near future.  I expect Vargas to look very sharp against the much slower Narh and win this fight pretty easily by the way of unanimous decision.