Mayweather, who took De la Hoya's WBC light middleweight crown, won 116-112, 115-113, 113-115 on the scorecards.
And Bradley Pryce of Newbridge puts his Commonwealth light middleweight belt on the line against London's Anthony Small.
If Wright does step up to fight Hopkins, colourful Ugandan Kassim Ouma could rise to the top of the light middleweight tree.
Arklow light middleweight James Moore stopped his French opponent Salaheddine Sarhani in the fourth round to chalk up his seventh pro success.
Also on the undercard, Uganda's Kassim Ouma won the IBF light middleweight crown over Verno Phillips following a unanimous decision by the judges.
England's Howard Eastman is the WBC's mandatory challenger and "Tito" may have to smash through light middleweight king Winky Wright to get to "The Executioner".
The son is 34, an OK-but-not-great light middleweight boxer whose next fight April 28 at the Barclays Center against Brooklyn's Dmitriy Salita will be the first since his dad's death.
The British light middleweight scene features a handful of potential world champions, but according to promoter Bob Arum, there is little chance of any of them fighting a De la Hoya or Vargas.
Light-middleweight Hope, 27, has followed their trail, taking another young Welsh boxer - Swansea light-welterweight James Todd - along with him.
Pryce has fought once this year, successfully defending his Commonwealth light-middleweight title by defeating Midlander Marcus Portman in June.
The light-middleweight was undefeated and had he beaten Sedgley's Tom Bowen, it would have been a sixth straight win.
BBC: Boxer Michael Norgrove death: Monica Harris to quit ring
The 31-year-old Zambian light-middleweight, who was based in London, collapsed on 31 March.
Meanwhile, Rees' stable-mate Bradley Pryce, the one-time light-middleweight Commonwealth champion, has been also been released by Warren's Sports Network company.
Chief support at the Kingsway Sports Centre sees a mouth-watering English light-middleweight title clash between Andrew Facey and Matthew Hall.
This time Puerto Rico won out as Daniel Santos beat the Margate-based Iranian Takaloo to unify the WBO and WBU light-middleweight titles.
Pryce said he had had a difficult year, most recently knocked out by Matthew Hall for the Commonwealth light-middleweight title in March.
The body of ex-WBA light-middleweight champion Shaun Cummins was found in 10 pieces in freezers at his home in Marriott Road, Leicester, in September.
The Belfast boxer previously moved up from super middleweight to light heavy after his bruising Commonwealth title defeat by Carl Froch last year.
He went on to win another gold as a light heavyweight, and a silver as a middleweight.
Lets get things straight I'm a big light-heavyweight and he's a super-middleweight, I think he's seen sense.
The 36-year-old, who beat Chris Eubank to win the WBO super-middleweight title in 1997, has been Welsh boxing's leading light for so long.
The 26-year-old previously held the European super-middleweight title but stepped up a division to claim the fringe WBO intercontinental light-heavyweight title against Sergey Demchenko last August.
British boxers surpassed their Beijing target with bronze medals for light-heavyweight Tony Jeffries and super-heavyweight David Price, and a superb gold for middleweight James DeGale.
Calzaghe, unbeaten in 45 bouts, was king of the super-middleweight division - holding the WBC, WBA and WBO titles - but The Ring light-heavyweight crown he won by beating Hopkins was to be on the line against four-weight world champion Jones.
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