Heard that one before?
Timothy Bradley Jr. won a unanimous decision over Jesse Vargas at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA, but it wasn’t that simple. It never is for Bradley.
Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KO’s) turned back a strong challenge from Vargas in the early rounds and pulled away over the second half of the fight to build a comfortable margin. But Vargas (26-1, 9 KO’s) landed the punch of the night in the waning seconds of the 12th round and had Bradley badly hurt. While Vargas was trying to capitalize, with Bradley holding on, referee Pat Russell thought he heard the final bell (it was the 10-second warning) and declared the fight over.
Vargas acted like he thought he won by stoppage, celebrating wildly. But Russell indicated that he thought the round was over, and thus the fight was also over. So it went to the cards.
Even if Vargas got a 10-8 score in the 12th, Bradley was way ahead. Official scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 115-112. InTheCorner.net scored it 117-110 for Bradley, including a 10-8 12th for Vargas.
So here’s the bottom line on the fight and the ending. Bradley outclassed Vargas. After some early competitive rounds, the second half of the fight was all Bradley with Vargas’ corner pleading for him to throw more punches. Any punches.
That Bradley got tagged at that point in a fight he clearly had in the bag, that’s a big mistake on his part. But he was going to survive. He hadn’t gone down and was already clear-headed enough to be holding on for dear life. Russell had to pull them apart when he thought he heard the final bell.
The early stoppage was a travesty. You can’t have this in a major fight. That’s what this was. A major fight with one of the elite fighters out there in Timothy Bradley Jr. On premium cable on HBO’s 1000th-fight celebration telecast. You can’t have a mistake like that.
But it didn’t cost Vargas the fight. He needed to knock Bradley out, not just down, to win. Would he have landed another clean punch and sent Bradley to a 10-count? We obviously have no way of knowing that now, but I didn’t see it coming. Bradley was going to make it to the final bell, just seconds away. He was already smothering Vargas, mindful of the time.
Russell just can’t make that mistake at that moment, though. There needs to be consequences for this big of an error.
Timothy Bradley has dealt with crazy occurrences from his controversial win over Manny Pacquaio to an unjust draw with Diego Chaves when he clearly won that fight. Now this.
Nevertheless, Bradley is an A-lister. He’s a must-see fighter and he’s been in there with most of the big names around his weight class, minus Floyd Mayweather Jr., of course.
Vargas had a chance to make a mark tonight and he let it pass. Not at the end when the referee intervened, but after about round six when he seemed to have the fight taken out of him by Bradley’s persistent attack. Vargas raised some swelling on Bradley’s left eye, proof of what he was getting done when he was letting his hands go.
But he got to a point where he couldn’t compete at that level anymore. Whether he was hurt by the volume punching of Bradley or tired due to bad conditioning, whatever, he was a non-factor in the second half of the fight until that big right hand landed. He should have been in position to have a 10-8 round earn him a points win. But he wasn’t anywhere near that, after multiple rounds of doing very little.
Bottom line, correct result, weird finish. This is our sport. At least it wasn’t a split decision, a draw, or worse.
