NEW YORK — Emiliano Vargas believes he will be ready for a 140-pound title shot within three or four fights.

If his championship chance must come against Teofimo Lopez, the emerging junior welterweight is perfectly fine with it. Vargas won’t allow the close relationship he has developed with The Ring and WBO champ to prevent them from fighting.

Vargas (15-0, 13 KOs) discussed eventually challenging Lopez following his spectacular first-round knockout of Alexander Espinoza on Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

“Teo’s an amazing fighter,” Vargas told a group of reporters. “I respect him a lot, but if he’s gonna stay at 140 pounds that’s on him. I have a great relationship with him. It’s just business at the end of the day. He’s a great fighter.”

Lopez, who will turn 28 on Wednesday, and Vargas, 21, have trained together in Las Vegas. While facing Lopez obviously would represent a huge opportunity, the champion is focused on making huge purses for fights with opponents closer to his age and status in their division.

Vargas’ point following his one-punch knockout of Ecuador’s Espinoza (20-4-1, 9 KOs) was that he is confident he will soon be ready for those types of challenges. The fast-handed, powerful prospect is seemingly as ambitious as his father/trainer, Fernando, who became a junior middleweight champion at 21 in December 1998.

“ I’m the new era of boxing,” Vargas said. “All my favorite fighters are 30, 36, 28, 30. So, there’s a lotta new stars that are coming up, and I’m definitely one of them. However the cards may fall, they fall. And it’s my job just to sign the contracts and fight the fights.”

Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) became a unified lightweight champion when he was 23. He upset Ukraine’s Vasiliy Lomachenko, who was 32 in beating him by unanimous decision in October 2020.

Defeating Lomachenko added The Ring, WBA, WBC franchise and WBO 135-pound championships to Lopez’s IBF belt. He became a two-weight champion when he outboxed former undisputed junior welterweight champ Josh Taylor to win The Ring and WBO belts in June 2023.

“I respect Teo 120 percent,” Vargas said. “I don’t want a clip to come up and you guys turn it around [and say] I’m trashing Teo. I got nothing but love and respect for Teo. And however the deck falls, it falls. But I’m the new era of boxing, and a lotta other fighters are.

"And I believe — and this isn’t anything cocky — every fighter who’s became world champion said the same thing. I believe it wholeheartedly. … It’s definitely gonna happen.”