Former light middleweight/welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga pulled out a majority decision over boxing great Fernando Vargas last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Vargas, 29, was knocked down in down in the 1st and 11th rounds, costing him the fight ultimately. The final judges’ scores were 114-112, 115-111 and 113-113, awarding the decision to Mayorga. In the first round, Mayorga came out on fire, flurrying and tagging Vargas with numerous shots to the head, many of them connecting to the back of Vargas’ head. In the last portion of the round, Mayorga overwhelmed Vargas, who was covering up for dear life, and droped him to the canvas.
In rounds two and three, Mayorga continued with his domination, hitting Vargas at will with powerful hooks, and backing him up. Mayorga, not considered a fast puncher, looked lightning fast compared to Vargas, who really only looked like a shell of himself. Vargas was rumored to have taken off 100 lbs in preparation for this bout, having to strip down from 265 lbs. Overall, Vargas looked weak, slow and weight drained. In other words, about the same as he looked in his last bout with Shane Mosley.
In rounds four through seven, Vargas was able to get Mayorga to slow down his pace, as he fought in a calculated, methodical manner that Mayorga seemed to mimic. The style didn’t suit Mayorga, who fights best when fighting all out in his customary out of control manner. Vargas took advantage of the slow down of the fight by landing mostly jabs and occasional right hands. In rounds eight thru ten, both fighters fought pretty much even, making it hard to tell who was getting the better of the action. Knowing that Vargas was the more popular fighter, I naturally assumed the judges would be giving him the benifit of the dount.
In rounds eleven and twelve, Mayorga couldn’t be denied, as he dropped Vargas for the 2nd time in the fight, tagging him with a monstrous right hand. Vargas made it up but looked both weary and hurt for the rest of the fight. Mayorga unloaded with a massive amount of punches in the last two rounds to seal the victory and to make sure there was no doubt in people’s minds who the winner was.
It was a sad ending for Vargas, who later announced his retirement. He finishes his career havining lost his last three bouts. For a second there, I was thinking if he had somehow pulled it out, we’d be seeing more of him, but not now. Hopefully, Vargas doesn’t take out his aggression on McDonalds, and wind up ballooning up in weight like he has in the past. Who knows? He may wind up coming back for one or two more old timer’s bouts like tonight.