Mikey Garcia (40-1, 30 KOs) got off to a slow start but then rallied to defeat the bigger former 2 division world champion Jessie Vargas (29-3-2, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the WBC Diamond welterweight title on Saturday night at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The scores were 114-113, 116-111, 116-111
Things were looking bad for Mikey until the 5th round when he dropped Vargas with a right to the head. Varga, 30, likely never recovered from that knockdown, as he was hurt repeatedly in rounds 6, 7, 8 and 9. What saved Vargas from being knocked out was Mikey’s economical work rate. He failed to throw enough
Vargas looked good when he wasn’t getting hurt by Mikey. He showed a good jab, left hook and right hand. Mikey was able to take Vargas’s best shots, and come back to hurt him.
After the contest, Mikey said he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao next this summer. If not Pacquiao, then Mikey would like a rematch with IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., who beat him last year in March.
Roman Gonzalez defeats Kal Yafai
Former 4 division world champion Román “Chocolatito” González (49-2, 41 KOs) rejuvenated his career with a 9th round knockout over WBA super flyweight Kal Yafai (26-1, 15 KOs) in the co-feature bout.
Chocolatito knocked Yafai, 30, down once in round 8 and 9. The fight was stopped by referee Luis Pabon after Yafai was knocked down by a right hand from Roman in the 9th. The fight was then subsequently halted by the referee. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:29 of round nine
As for Yafai, he needs to think about possibly moving up to bantamweight, because he looked like his off performance may have been a result of the weight.
Roman, 32, said after the fight that he wants to take on WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada in a unification.
Undercard results for the Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas card from The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Julio Cesar Martinez UD 12 Jay Harris
Joseph Parker KO 5 Shawndell Winters
Luis Ruiz Acevedo TKO 3 Dennis Knifechief
Jesse Rodriguez TKO 8 Marco Sustaita
Alexis Espino UD 6 Delvecchio Savage
Diego Pacheco UD 6 Oscar Rojas
Israil Madrimov KO5 Charlie Navarro