Boxing Results: Conor Benn stops Samuel Vargas in 1st round TKO

By Boxing News - 04/10/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Conor Benn (18-0, 12 KOs) stopped journeyman Samuel Vargas (31-7-2, 14 KOs) by what appeared to be a premature first-round knockout on Saturday night in a scheduled 10 round match at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.

Benn flurried on the 31-year-year-old Vargas while he was against the ropes, causing referee Michael Alexander to step in and stopped the fight. Vargas was covering up and didn’t look hurt, so it’s unclear if the referee lost his sense of what was going and prematurely stopped it.

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It looked like Vargas was fine, but the referee had a closer look. Benn’s power wasn’t the thing that got Vargas. It was the speed and the fact that was unloading with a flurry of shots, and Vargas wasn’t ready for that kind of attack.

Benn’s power didn’t look that great, but it was the way that he flurried on Vargas, who wasn’t ready for that kind of attack.

“Statement made,” said a keyed-up Benn after the fight, his voice cracking with emotion. All those guys you mentioned, no one banged him out in the first round.

“Give me a proper test, give me Amir Khan. I’m ready for the top dogs, Shawn Porter, Adrien Broner. Amir Khan, let’s go, mate. The power is coming.

“I’m going to be retired when I’m 30. Every time I step up, they say that I’m stepping up. Start putting some respect on my name. Just put some respect on my name.

“I continue to prove that I’m top dog. I’m the best welterweight in the country. Give me Shawn Porter, give me Amir Khan, give me Broner,” said Benn.

Conor looks good enough potentially to beat Broner and the Khan, but Shawn Porter would be a step too far. There’s little chance that Benn will be put in with the likes of Porter because he would nullify his speed by forcing the action to the side, and it would likely end badly for Conor.

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“Long ways to go, a superstar in the making,” said Eddie Hearn. “You’re a great fighter.”

Hearn is going a little bit overboard by calling Benn “great” because he’s cheapening that label by giving it to Benn after a win over the journeyman Vargas. If you saw the punishment that Vargas took in his last fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr, it’s pretty clear that he wasn’t the same fighter that he was due to the beating that he took.

Additionally, Ortiz had Vargas in trouble in the first round of that fight last year, but there wasn’t a referee to step in and prematurely stop it like there was tonight.

When you got a referee that is pretty to stop a fight quickly when a fighter Isn’t hurt, it’s easy to look good. In no way should Vargas had been stopped in the first round tonight.