By Mark Eisner: O’Shaquie Foster (20-2, 11 KOs) surprisingly dominated previously unbeaten former two-division world champion Rey Vargas (36-1, 22 KOs) on Saturday night, beating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision to capture the vacant WBC super featherweight title at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
The scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 119-109. Boxing News 24 scored it 119-109 for the 29-year-old Foster.
Vargas, 32, was too slow and lacked the athletism to compete with the faster Orange, Texas native Foster in this fight. When the 5’10” Vargas fought at 122 and 126, he was able to count on his huge size advantage to help him win, but at 130, his size wasn’t enough to get the job done tonight.
In hindsight, Vargas might be regretting vacating his WBC featherweight title because if he’d held onto that belt, he could return to the weight class and defend it.
Undercard results
- Former WBA light welterweight champion Mario ‘El Azteca’ Barrios (27-2, 18 KOs) looked very impressive in his second fight at 147, stopping the always-tough Jovanie Santiago (14-3-1, 10 KOs) in the eighth round in a scheduled ten round bout. The 27-year-old Barrios dropped Santiago with a beautiful left to the body in the eighth. After Santiago bravely got back to his feet, Barrios unloaded with a storm of shots, causing his corner to throw in the white towel of surrender. The referee stopped the contest at 1:42 of the eighth round. The victory for Barrios snaps a two-fight losing streak. In two previous fights, Barrios was beaten by Keith Thurman and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Barrios looked excellent tonight, and he can be one of the top guys at 147 if he keeps improving. It wasn’t fair to him to take on Thurman in his first fight in the welterweight division last year. Ideally, Barrios should have fought Santiago back then instead of rushing into a fight against the former WBA/WBC 147-lb champion ‘One Time’ Thurman.
- Undefeated heavyweight prospect Lenier Peró (9-0, 6 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with an eighth round stoppage win over previously unbeaten Viktor Faust (11-1, 7 KOs). The 29-year-old Cuban heavyweight Pero struggled early on, getting hurt by the Ukrainian Faust in the third. However, in the eighth round, Pero landed a hard shot to the midsection of the 30-year-old Faust, hurting him. The shot caused Faust to lose his composure, turning around. At that point, referee Rafael Ramos stepped in and halted the contest. The time of the stoppage was at 2:28 of the eighth round. Despite winning, it wasn’t an altogether great performance from Pero because he was having difficulties with Faust’s power and boxing skills. Unless Pero can make dramatic improvements, it’s difficult to see him as one of the major players in the division. Also, he’s not exactly young at 29
- In a mismatch, lightweight Claudio Marrero (27-5, 19 KOs) stopped Gonzalo Fuenzalida (12-2, 3 KOs) by a fifth round knockout. Fuenzalida was down in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. The referee halted the contest at :43 of the fifth.
- Undefeated middleweight prospect Eumir Marcial (4-0, 2 KOs) obliterated Ricardo Villalba (20-8-1, 8 KOs) by a second round knockout. Marcial knocked Villalba down three times in the contest. Once in the first and two more times in the second round before the bout was halted at :48 of round two.
- Unbeaten Cuban heavyweight prospect Dainier Peró (3-0, 2 KOs) was forced to go the distance, beating Daniel Zavala (2-2-2, 0 KOs) by a four round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.
- Junior middleweight prospect David Whitmire (1-0, 1 KOs) stopped Keith Foreman (0-1, 1 NC) in the first round of a scheduled four round bout. Whitmore dropped Foreman two times.
Preview: The lanky 5’10”, long-armed 32-year-old Vargas towered over the 5’8 1/2″ Foster when the two came head-to-head for the traditional face-off. Vargas looked considerably taller and bigger than Texas native Foster, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he can use his size to outbox his smaller opponent tonight.
Vargas will be looking to use his height, reach, and skills to outbox inexperienced Foster tonight. It could be a dull fight, as Vargas isn’t a slugger, and he tends to focus on boxing his opponents rather than getting in the trenches to slug it out.
It’s been seven years since the Mexico native Vargas scored his last knockout when he stopped the badly out-sized former WBA super flyweight champion Alexandr ‘El Explosivo’ Munoz in the fifth round in 2016. Since that fight, Vargas has won his last eight fights by decision.
Former WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios (26-2, 17 KOs) will attempt to end his two-fight losing streak by going up against the tough Jovanie Santiago (14-2-1, 7 KOs) in the 10 round co-feature bout.
Like Barrios, Santiago comes into tonight’s fight, having lost his last two fights. Still, out of fairness to him, he should only have one defeat on his record because his 12 round unanimous decision defeat against the badly faded former four-division world champion Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner in February 2021 was a highly controversial one in which Jovanie appeared to win by a minimum of four rounds, but wound up losing by a wide set of scores against the A-side fighter.
In Santiago’s last bout, he was wiped out by the talented unbeaten 140-lb contender Gary Antuanne Russell by a sixth round stoppage in May 2021. Since that loss, Santiago has been idle.
Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Lenier Pero (8-0, 5 KOs) battles Viktor Vykhryst (11-0, 7 KOs) in 10 round fight.
Pero, 29, is a former Cuban amateur talent, who turned pro in 2019, but still hasn’t fought anyone of note to tell where he’s got the goods to be a top 10 heavyweight.
At 6’4 1/2″, the southpaw Pero has the height to be a top fighter, but it’s still unclear whether he’s got the goods to make it in the professional ranks.
The 30-year-old Viktor Vykhryst, who fights out of Las Vegas and goes by the name, Viktor Faust, was born in Svitlovodsk, Ukraine. He turned professional in 2020 and has some respectable journeyman-level names on his record.
The 6’5″ Faust has wins over Kevin Johnson, Franklin Lawrence, Iago Kiladze, Kamil Sokolowski, and Yakup Saglam.
There’s no comparison between Faust and Pero’s pro records, as Viktor has faced much better competition during his short three-year professional career.
It’s unclear why the handlers of Pero have matched him against such poor opposition. Do they lack confidence in him? At any rate, Pero has strictly been matched against no-names with poor records, and he’s been spinning his wheels fighting guys that were too poor to help him rise up the ranks.
Undefeated Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs) seeks his third division title tonight against the surging O’Shaquie Foster (19-2, 11 KOs) in a fight for the vacant WBC super featherweight title in a 12-round main event on Showtime in a card that begins at 9:00 p.m. ET from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Vargas is one of the most technical fighters in the sport, and he’s going to try and use his skills to neutralize the power of the slightly younger 29-year-old Foster in this compelling battle for the vacant WBC 130-lb belt.