Friday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Javier Fortuna (28-0-1, 20 KOs), from La Romana, Dominican Republic, decisioned tough but outclassed Bryan Vasquez (34-2, 18 KOs), from San Jose, Costa Rica, by scores of 116-112 and 117-111 twice to win the vacant WBA World super featherweight title.
A long and lean southpaw with power in both hands, Fortuna isn’t a perfect fighter. He doesn’t throw straight punches. He hardly ever moves his head. He keeps his hands at his sides. But he is athletic. He is fast. And his persistence is off the charts.
Vasquez tried to keep it close and had his moments. He came into the fight as the thinking man’s fighter, the guy who could box against a guy who could punch. But Fortuna wasn’t about to be pigeonholed. He fought on the inside and outside.
His long looping punches more often than not found the mark. He wore down Vasquez bit by bit, round by round, and as the fight progressed the Costa Rican looked like a man in over his head.
It was, nonetheless, an exciting, all-action fight. Vasquez, who is more tough than talented, needs to return to the drawing board. All Fortuna needs to do is keep on doing what he’s doing. In an attempt to cover all the bases in this championship fight, the WBA hired six anonymous professional judges to watch the fight live on Spike TV with the sound muted.
Their scores were entered after each round into a website application and streamed in real-time to the WBA.
All six review judges scored the fight in favor of Javier Fortuna. One judge had it close, at 115-113. While the other review judges scored it more comfortably for the winner, with scores ranging from 119-109 to 117-111.
Header photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing
