On Saturday, July 9, 2022, Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo (24-1, 16 KOs) vs. Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs) headlined a fight card on Showtime from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas in a Premier Boxing Champions event.
In a hard-fought battle, Vargas recovered from a late knockdown to win the WBC Featherweight title via split decision over Magsayo. The official scores were 115-112 twice for Vargas and 114-113 for Magsayo.
Heading into the first defense of his WBC Featherweight title, the world champion Magsayo made it known that he wanted Vargas to stand and trade.
“I hope Rey Vargas doesn’t run too much, so we can give a good fight to the people,” said Magsayo.
Many people took this to mean that Magsayo was not comfortable dealing with a boxer. Those people were correct.
Surprisingly, Vargas did decide to stand and trade for many of the early rounds, but even then, Magsayo had difficulty finding much success against the rangier Mexican.
Although Magsayo talked a lot about working on new things in the gym with Freddie Roach during this camp, his offensive options seemed predictable and limited.
“I’ve worked on a lot of different things with Freddie Roach to make sure that we’re ready for anything Vargas brings,” said Magsayo before the fight. But the Filipino fighter didn’t show any new wrinkles to his game.
Even Magsayo’s hero Manny Pacquiao told him that footwork and head movement would be key to winning this fight–but the champion didn’t apply much of either.
By Round 6, Vargas began moving a bit more and made it harder for Magsayo to find a clean target, which helped the former 122-pound champion bank the middle rounds.
Magsayo kept his head on the line, hoping to catch Vargas with leaping hooks, while Vargas continued firing combinations and circling away from danger. The rounds looked to be repeating themselves until Magsayo struck gold with a power shot in the ninth round.
In Round 9, the champion was finally able to land a straight right hand down the middle that hurt and floored Vargas. It was the turn of the tide that Magsayo desperately needed to swing the momentum in his favor.
Vargas was visibly shaken, but made it out of the round. Vargas spent most of Round 10 on wobbly legs, but to the surprise of Abner Mares and the rest of the Showtime commentating crew, Magsayo did not take advantage of the opportunity.
Instead, Vargas came out and boxed intelligently in Round 11 and Round 12–at his pace. It was a close fight, but one that could have ended differently if Magsayo would have shown more urgency down the stretch.
In the end, Vargas held a 196-132 overall connect advantage and threw 236 more punches (according to CompuBox) than the gun-shy Magsayo.
In a division with titleholders such as Josh Warrington, Leo Santa Cruz and Emanuel Navarrete, Vargas’ victory certainly opens up the opportunity for some entertaining unification fights in his future. Tack on the likes of Mauricio Lara and Mark Magsayo and there are tons of fun fights to make at 126 pounds.
Vargas seems keen on making an all-Mexican clash with Leo Santa Cruz next, and you can certainly sign me up for that one.
“I think a unification with Leo Santa Cruz,” said Vargas who was asked who he wants next during the post-fight interview with Jim Gray. “We’ve talked about it and maybe we’ll make that fight.”
