By Sevak Sarkisian, staff writer

 Boxing fans around the world are excited about the month of November for all the great match ups that are in store. However, the fight that will kick off the great month of November for us boxing fans is none other than the welterweight world title fight between future Hall of Fame fighter and modern day legend in Manny Pacquiao (58-6 38KO’s) and current WBO welterweight champion Jesse Vargas (27-1 10KO’s) on Saturday November 5th.  The two welterweights will face one another at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas Nevada and the bout will be aired live on PPV distributed by Top Rank Promotions. 

Even though this match up wasn’t necessarily demanded by fight fans it’s certainly a fight that we should be excited about and one that presents a nice stylistic match up.  There are many factors that make this fight interesting such as, Pacquiao’s age factor and his distractions with his new political occupation along with his questionable hunger for the sport.  On the other hand Jesse Vargas has been looking better than ever and is coming off a career best victory winning a world title in the processes. 

Vargas stands at 5’10 in height and possesses a 71 inch reach. He carries great size for a welterweight and will have a big size advantage over Manny Pacquiao.  He holds wins over Josesito Lopez, Aaron Martinez, Steve Forbes, Khabib Allakhverdiev, Antonio DeMarco and Sadam Ali. However, it should be noted that a few of these wins are regarded as controversial according to many fans.  Jesse Vargas has also changed many trainers throughout his career including the likes of Roger Mayweather, Erik Morales and Roy Jones Jr.  However, for the time being he has settled with Dewey Cooper and so far it seems to be a fine fit.  Jesse in his last fight showed an ability to be able to consistently land his straight right hand.  That’s how he even got the knockout.  I look for Vargas to try to do the same thing in this fight and attempt to consistently land his straight right hand since not only does it seem to be money punch lately but it’s also regarded as the best weapon against southpaws. 

Manny Pacquiao on the other hand is 5’5 ½ in height and possesses a 67 inch reach.  The living legend is past his prime but still a top welterweight never the less. Manny is a former eight division world titlist and a future Hall of famer.  He is a quick southpaw that likes to fight with an in and out style.  What has made him so successful is his unpredictability and hand speed.  He is currently coming off of a great dominant win against top welterweight Tim Bradly and showed to be in great form.  That is the biggest reason on why I favor Pacquiao in this fight.  He simply showed that he is still a capable fighter on the world class level.  However, with older fighters things can sometimes change overnight. 

This fight is not only a great stylistic match up, but one with many different intriguing factors going into it.  I simply can’t wait for the month of November for all the great fights coming our way, especially on the 5^th!