Josue Vargas has waited his entire career for a fight like this.

The two-year wait to fight in New York again, however, has felt even longer to the 23-year-old Bronx-bred Boricua southpaw.

It comes in his toughest test to date, as Vargas (19-1, 9KOs) next faces top junior welterweight contender and former title challenger Jose Zepeda (34-2, 26KOs). The crossroads bout serves as the main event this Saturday on ESPN+ from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City.

“I can’t believe it’s only been since 2019,” Vargas noted to BoxingScene.com. “I can’t wait to fight again in front of all my people here. This is the perfect fight to bring home. It couldn’t be just another fight. It has to be special.”

The last appearance on site or anywhere in New York for Vargas—originally from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx—came in December 2019, when he appeared on the ESPN+ streamed undercard to the main show on ESPN, headlined by WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford’s ninth-round knockout of then-unbeaten Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Vargas went ten rounds for the first time in his career that evening, soundly outpointing Noel Murphy as part of his current 13-fight win streak.

Three of those victories have taken place during the pandemic, two behind closed doors in Las Vegas before outpointing Willie Shaw over ten rounds in front of a sold-out but still Covid-restricted crowd this past April at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. The heavily Puerto Rican-populated city felt like home to Vargas, especially after not hearing the cheers of any fans at all in his pair of wins in Vegas.

Saturday night figures to be a different kind of feeling for the streaking junior welterweight. The showdown with Zepeda is a fight he has craved for years as he believes to now be at the contender stage of his career.

Zepeda has solidified his place among the division’s best, nearly conquering then-unbeaten titlist Jose Ramirez in February 2019. The California-bred contender has since added wins over former titlists Jose Pedraza and Ivan Baranchyk, the latter coming in an epic fifth round knockout last October. Both fighters hit the deck four times each but with Zepeda as the last man standing in a brutal affair universally hailed as the 2020 Fight of the Year.

“That fight was crazy,” recalls Vargas. “We always knew he was tough and he showed it there, coming back from all those knockdowns to knock out Baranchyk like that. I know he’s coming to bring it (on Saturday) and I’m prepared for that version of him, the best version like the one who almost beat Ramirez when he was a world champion.

“That’s the win I want to deliver to my people, to all my fans that will be in the crowd cheering me on.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox