Turning up to work with a black eye and a split nose you’d think would turn heads, but not at one
Liberty Mutual brokerage in Garden City, Kansas.
When personal lines agent Eric Vargas comes to work after a fight, battered and bruised, his clients and team are supportive.
Vargas’ life is an unusual double-act: he’s an insurance agent 9am-5pm, and a professional boxer when he’s not in the office. The 27-year-old turned pro earlier this year and now has a 3-0 record, with one knockout and two unanimous decisions in his favor.
“The clients think it’s awesome. They’re intrigued by it, they want to know more,” he said “Most of our clients they know what’s going on. They know me from the papers, they know I turned pro, they know me from when I was younger fighting as an amateur.
“And I build a relationship with them off of that. It actually helps me, later on down the line with them in the relationship. They seem to enjoy it. It’s pretty cool.”
After all, it’s not every day you sit down with a pro boxer to discuss your home and auto policies.
“My office supports me a lot [too],” he said. “In our office they have boxing gloves set up and pictures of me in my matches.”
The boxer became an insurance broker at Calzonetti Group about five years ago, after leaving a job at Bank of America, and he’s never looked back.
In his boxing life, it’s taken him a little longer to find his groove. Vargas had an offer to join the pro ranks as a teenager in Texas, but moved to Kansas instead. He said that, as a younger man, he had less internal drive – jumping in and out of the gym for a few months here, a few months there.
It wasn’t until January he finally made the step up and since then he has had three pro victories, the most recent of which was a victory over a three-time Golden Glove champion who Vargas was not expected to beat. He and his fighting team are now weighing up several fight offers, but hope to have another three bouts before the end of the year, he said.
“When I was younger, it wasn’t really a priority for me. But when I decided to turn pro, I knew if I gave it 100% I knew I could beat a lot of people and most likely make it to the top, or at least to contender status.”
Vargas, listed as 5’5”, currently fights as a featherweight, but ultimately hopes to work his way up to the 140lb super lightweight division.
“The big goal, the big picture right now … hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be 6-0. Next year, if we can get another six fights in, I could be 12-0.
“We set a lot of goals, but the main goal is to get to that contender status, and then hopefully fight for a title someday.”
And wouldn’t that be ultimate talking point for his clients – buying insurance from a man with a professional boxing belt.
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