LAS VEGAS – Emiliano Vargas impressively brought his family name back to a holiday boxing weekend in Las Vegas Sunday night, disposing of Spain’s Juan Leon by second-round technical knockout at T-Mobile Arena.

Performing on the card headlined by undisputed junior-featherweight champion Naoya Inoue of Japan, Vargas, 14-0 (12 KOs), overwhelmed Leon, 11-3-1, with an earlier knockdown in the second.

The finishing touch he applied was a sudden, thunderous left-handed uppercut to the face that brought referee Robert Hoyle to end the bout 1 minute, 40 seconds into the round.

Top Rank matchmakers plan to keep the 21-year-old son of Fernando Vargas busy after bringing him back just 36 days after his second-round TKO of Giovannie Gonzalez on March 29.

Vargas’ former junior-middleweight world champion father, Fernando Vargas, staged the memorable 2002 Mexican Independence weekend bout with Oscar De La Hoya, who won by 11th-round TKO.

The elder Vargas told BoxingScene recently that he can foresee his talented, charismatic son emerging as one of the most formidable candidates to replace Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as a leading draw in the sport given his penchant for the knockout, his legacy and talent.

The younger Vargas captured his first belt with Sunday’s victory, collecting the NABF 140lbs strap.

Rohan Polanco, 16-0, the WBO’s 10th-rated welterweight, clinched his rise by posting a unanimous-decision victory by three 100-89 scores over recent title challenger Fabian Maidana 24-4.

Maidana, the Argentinian brother of former welterweight champion Marcos Maidana, fought for the WBC title exactly one year ago, losing a unanimous decision to current champion Mario Barrios Jnr. Maidana rallied with two victories in his home country.

He struggled with Polanco’s hand speed and counterpunching early, as the Dominican maintained an aggressor’s stance, willing to absorb some blows in exchange for landing the telling shots.

Polanco’s attention to the body allowed him to sneak in scoring head shots, and that variety of power blows led him to land a late 10th-round knockdown on a right-handed body shot to seal the outcome.

Earlier, in his U.S. debut, unbeaten Japan featherweight Mikito Nakano, 13-0 (12 KOs), recorded five knockdowns of Pedro Marquez, the last of which prompted a stoppage at 1:58 of the fourth round.
Nakano, 29, knocked down Puerto Rico’s Marquez twice in the second, initially with a combination of left-handed blows to the head, then another left that dropped Marquez again.

A third knockdown – from another left – occurred in the third round, but Marquez stood up, bounced on both feet and held up both hands before completing the session.

He wasn’t so lucky in the fourth, absorbing a power blow by the left-hander to kneel again before getting sent down for good seconds later.  

In a junior-middleweight bout, Art Barrera Jnr, another product of trainer Robert Garcia’s prolific gym in Moreno Valley, California, scored a sixth-round technical knockout of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra Jnr, 6-2-1.

While Barrera, 9-0 (7 KOs), showed he’s up for engaging in a toe-to-toe slugfest by doing so with Guerra to start the third round, he wore his opponent down with a steady roll of heavy handed blows to the head, which prompted a ringside doctor’s visit of Guerra before the final round began.

At the 1:15 mark of the sixth, referee Thomas Taylor waved the fight over after Barrera blasted Guerra with another wave of jarring head shots. 

Ra’eese Aleem, 34, who suffered a 2023 split-decision loss to Australia’s Sam Goodman that cost him pole position to an Inoue fight, opened the card by flashing a sharp left hook and outworking Rudy Garcia to claim a unanimous-decision victory by scores of 98-92, 97-93, 99-91. 

Aleem, 22-1, discouraged South Central Los Angeles’ Garcia, 13-2-1, with the effectiveness of his hook, relying on increased activity and a more universal skillset to win his second bout for Top Rank after debuting for the promotion in November.