By Don Deane
22.09 - I just finished watching the De La Hoya-Vargas fight on HBO replay so this is a little late for an analysis. Unfortunately I spent my pay per view allowance on Tyson-Lewis. My first reaction to the fight was amazement that there wasn't one head butt or low blow. After the Johnson-Ruiz fight, I figured Joe Cortez would call anything south of the arm pits a low blow. And for head butts, it seems that every fight I watch on HBO or Showtime is marred by cranial collisions. Another anomaly was the absence of clinching. These two fighters respected the skills the other brought to the table and each fought with those skills. The skill level present in both men made this an entertaining, skillful fight that contained wins and losses for both men.
De La Hoya will be credited with more wins than losses obviously. He came out off a long lay off and boxed a beautiful almost perfect fight. Dare I say he gave an "Oscar" winning performance? No, I wouldn't dare. But seriously, Oscar used his speed and superior movement to work off the ring rust in the first half of the fight. Though I'm not a fan of boxers moving backwards, De La Hoya used patience to his advantage to feel Vargas out during the first 5 rounds. In Rounds 6 and 7 when Oscar stepped it up, he had already worn Vargas down with the jab and some beautiful hooks to the body. He was content to let Vargas come to him and let loose the faster punches when Vargas came in range. Oscar showed superb ring generalship by making Vargas move himself into danger, as opposed to forcing the issue like Fernando does. De La Hoya's best talent showed during the knockout sequence. Too many fighters smother their opponents when they are pressuring them on the ropes. When Vargas was bobbing and weaving to avoid the onslaught after he was knocked down; De La Hoya stepped back and created enough space to attack again. Then when Vargas slid to an adjacent corner, De La Hoys stuck out a measuring stick jab and let go with a flurry of punches that were connecting at exactly the correct arm position. Vargas was being tagged with rights and lefts that were fast and accurate. Last but not least, the left hook in the 11th round was a beautiful punch. I give De La Hoya an A- for the effort. The only knocking points were De La Hoya's tendency to carry his hands low, and the 5 rounds of ring rust.
Vargas was handled by De La Hoya quite easily. But he did many impressive things. Vargas is a very strong fighter and has the ability to out muscle guys on the ropes as well as go toe to toe in the center of the ring. He boxed well with De La Hoya, despite giving away hand speed and body quickness to the smaller man. What Vargas did well was pursuing with caution. He came at De La Hoya a little different than he had against Flores, Rivera and even Felix Trinidad. He was more straight up with his hands high, for the most part. Vargas has a habit of ducking in, which takes away his size advantage and leaves him susceptible to uppercuts and leaves his face unguarded. When he works his way in with punches and keeps himself in a fighting stance, he enables himself to throw stronger punches. He showed this in the early rounds as he maneuvered De La Hoya to the ropes. Fernando is an incredible fighter, just not at the level of De La Hoya. But not many people are. In Round 9, Vargas got antsy and went after De La Hoya, but was neutralized because of the punishment he had taken in the previous 8 rounds. The end of Vargas' night was the last few seconds of round 10 when he was staggered. I give Vargas a B for his fight. He showed some new boxing skills and his tremendous strength, but he did not have enough of the whole package for De La Hoya.
So now that Winky Wright, Oscar and Fernando have all fought this month, what happens next? Oscar will probably pursue the rematch with Shane Mosley. Vargas will probably stay in limbo for awhile. He is too good for the other fighters in the division, but not good enough to beat the champs. Maybe he can fight Daniel Santos. Winky Wright will probably chirp about De La Hoya but will end up fighting another mid-ranked contender on a Roy Jones undercard.
Before this wraps up, I would like to say that Vargas was a gracious loser, and I wonder if Richard Hall had been the opponent, would he have accused De La Hoya of using steroids to jump from 130 to 154? Also, all the readers know how I feel about John Ruiz, so in reference to that entertaining article by Ron Widelec, I vote for Ruiz as worst champ of all time.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
