Editorials

Tim Bradley vs. Jessie Vargas: We Were Due for a Shit Show

Senior Writer Lou Catalano breaks down the mayhem at the end of Saturday night’s fight between Tim Bradley and Jessie Vargas and discusses the aftermath.

Photo by Chris Farina - Top Rank Timothy Bradley Jessie Vargas Photo By Chris Farina

Here’s the good news for Tim Bradley: he defeated Jessie Vargas Saturday night on HBO by unanimous decision. He looked like his usual self throughout most of the fight, aggressively stalking Vargas and landing the cleaner, harder shots. A few of the early rounds were close, but Bradley separated himself in the mid-to-late rounds, establishing control of the fight and proving that he was superior to the younger, undefeated Vargas. Despite Max Kellerman’s maddening insistence on trying to make us believe the fight was up-in-the-air, it was Bradley’s to lose.

And goddamn if he didn’t try. Once again, Bradley made things harder than they had to be by completely ignoring his the directions of his excellent trainer, Joel Diaz. Diaz implored Bradley to quit lunging in with his hands down, fearing that Bradley would walk into something he didn’t see coming. Bradley ignored said advice and swallowed an absolute grenade of a right hand with about 20 seconds remaining in the fight. Bradley remained upright, mostly because he’s damn near impossible to actually put down, but he was horribly hurt and basically out on his feet.

Of course, this is boxing, and there hasn’t been any disturbing, moronic, totally-avoidable-and-completely-off-the-wall shenanigans in awhile, so we were due. Vargas jumped all over Bradley in an attempt to finish him off, but that’s when Pat Russell decided that the fight was over. He was tired and needed some sleep. What actually happened was that the normally stout Russell thought he’d heard the final bell, and thus waved the fight off. Vargas thought Russell had stopped the fight because he was pounding on Bradley, so he began a wild and jubilant celebration with his team while a mildly-concussed Bradley stared at him with a confused, Point Break-era Keanu Reeves expression on his face.

The madness finally settled down and the fight eventually went to the scorecards, with Bradley declared the winner. Vargas demanded a rematch, which Bradley granted immediately, at least in the post-fight interview. He apparently changed his mind in the moments between then and the press conference afterwards, possibly hearing the collective groan let out when “rematch” was uttered. While the fight was far from terrible, it wasn’t really all that great. Bradley did enough to win comfortably, and the only drama occurred at the tail end of the match.

It is possible that Vargas would take the momentum he earned and apply it in the second fight, fighting as the aggressor and maybe landing another massive shot. Or, Bradley could simply start listening to instructions and win another wide decision. Either way, the fact that Bradley and his team backtracked off the rematch talk almost immediately means we probably aren’t going to see this one again, at least not next.

For Vargas, though he wasn’t spectacular by any stretch, he held his own against an elite fighter and had him reeling at the end. He wasn’t nearly busy enough, he was backpedaling throughout the fight, and he ate too many punches – especially that overhand right Bradley throws so well. You could see the strain in his new coach, Erik Morales, as he begged Vargas to put his punches together. It was kind of surprising not to see Morales dive into the ring at some point and crack Bradley over the head with a spit bucket while questioning his manhood.

At 26-years-old, Vargas has plenty of room to grow. One big step he’s already taken is that he’s clearly punching harder now than ever before. He landed some bombs in his last fight, against Tony Demarco, and he had the granite-chinned Bradley stumble-drunk from a single shot. While he may never be at the top of the sport, he’s a solid all-around fighter who could do some damage.

Bradley is probably on to bigger things. He’s still an elite fighter, and he’s still exciting as hell, even if it’s often to his own detriment. Put him in with a banger – even though he isn’t one himself – and we’ll all be in for a good night. The dude Just. Wants. War.

And then, there’s poor Pat Russell. In my many diatribes against awful judges, I’ve never really had much to say about him. He’s usually quite solid. And though he may have stopped the first Rios/Alvarado fight a little early, that’s about all the dirt you can find on him. But this… This was bad. This was “retire immediately” bad. Hopefully, it was just a temporary glitch at the worst possible moment, a one-time error. He’s human, and he made a terrible mistake. And chances are quite low that Vargas was actually going to stop Bradley, though he certainly should have had the opportunity to try.

Boxing is like a pro figure skater who does a flawless routine and then shatters an ankle during the final jump. You can admire all the work, and still shake your head in confusion when you leave.

One of these times, they’ll stick the landing.

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