[8] In his next fight Vargas won an eight-round unanimous decision against Mexican Ramón Montaño on the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana.

[9] On February 24, 2011, Vargas fought at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California, against journeyman Cristian Favela (19–31–7, 10 KOs).

[10] On March 31, Golden Boy announced that Vargas would fight former WBA light welterweight Champion Vivian Harris (29–5–1, 19 KO's) at the Desert Arena in Primm, Nevada, on April 8.

[13] On June 14, British boxer Ashley Theophane declined the opportunity to fight Vargas on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Victor Ortiz, which was scheduled to take place on September 17.

[14] Colombian boxer Walter Estrada (39–14–1, 25 KO's) was later confirmed to be Vargas' next opponent in a scheduled 10 round bout on July 8.

[17] In August 2011, British boxer Amir Khan began chasing a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. possibly for 2012.

[24][25] On February 2, 2013, Top Rank announced that Vargas would be opening the Timothy Bradley vs. Ruslan Provodnikov card against Wale 'Lucky Boy' Omotoso (23–0, 19 KOs) on March 16 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

In round two, during an exchange, Omotoso landed a body shot forcing Vargas' knee to touch the mat, thus ruling a knockdown.

[28] In May 2013, Vargas stated he was likely to return on the undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Tim Bradley HBO pay-per-view, scheduled to take place in the fall at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

It was also revealed the fight would take place on the HBO PPV, but instead UniMás would televise a card from the same venue on the Friday night.

"[34] On January 30, 2014, it was announced that Vargas would get his first opportunity to fight for a world title on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley II PPV card on HBO on April 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Nevada.

He would challenge fellow Top Rank stablemate, 31 year old Khabib Allakhverdiev (19–0, 9 KO) for the WBA 'Regular' and IBO light welterweight titles.

In May, Boxing Scene stated Vargas would make his first defence against Russian boxer Anton Novikov (29–0, 10 KOs), although a deal was not finalized.

The same source stated the bout would feature on the undercard of Brandon Rios vs. Diego Chaves on August 2, 2014, in either Las Vegas or Fresno.

Novikov failed a post fight drug test in 2012 after he won the vacant WBC silver welterweight title against Karlo Tabaghua in Russia.

[49] On September 16, 2014 Top Rank promoter Bob Arum announced that Vargas would be making his second title defence on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri at The Venetian Macao in Macau, SAR on November 22 against 28 year old Mexican boxer and former lightweight world champion Antonio DeMarco (31–3–1, 23 KOs).

[56] On April 30, 2015, it was announced that Vargas would be making his welterweight debut against former two-weight world champion Timothy Bradley (31–1–1, 12 KOs) on June 27 at StubHub Center in Carson, California.

[64] On July 8, Vargas filed an appeal to the California State Athletic Commission to change the outcome of the fight to No Contest.

Vargas landed a brutal body shot followed by a right to the head to knock him out on his feet and win the vacant WBO world title.

Hearn told Sky Sports he had "offered a huge amount of money" to make the fight happen and while he conceded Brook might have to travel to America, Vargas insists he was willing to cross the Atlantic.

[72] Negotiations fell through on July 9 for the unification title fight, when it was announced that Brook would be moving up two weight divisions to challenge Gennady Golovkin instead.

[73] Sky Sports announced on 4 August 2016, Vargas would defend his WBO welterweight title against eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (58–6–2, 38 KOs), coming out of retirement, on November 5.

On October 18, Vargas stated the reason why he turned down the Cotto fight was simply because Golden Boy Promotions did not offer him a good enough deal.

[80] On November 11, it was announced that Vargas would finally return to the ring in California against fringe Mexican boxer Aaron Herrera (33–7–1, 22 KOs) on December 15, 2017.

[82] Prior to the fight, Vargas replaced trainer Dewey Cooper with former three-weight world champion Mike McCallum.

[86][87] On January 24, Showtime announced Adrien Broner vs. Omar Figueroa Jr. (27–0–1, 19 KOs) would take place on April 21 at the Barclays Center in New York.

[96] On August 4, BoxingScene reported a fight between Vargas and former world title challenger Thomas Dulorme (24–3, 16 KOs) was being negotiated and close to being a done deal to take place on October 6 in Chicago, Illinois.

Vargas had a good round 4, even with blood covering his face, where he landed multiple right hands, forcing Dulorme to hold.

In the final moments of the fight, Dulorme landed clean on Vargas' chin, forcing a glove to touch the canvas.

[105] In February, it was confirmed that Vargas would move up light middleweight and make his return on the rematch of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs. Juan Francisco Estrada at The Forum in Los Angeles on April 26, 2019.