The fight between Fernando “El Feroz” Vargas and Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga took place Friday, November 23rd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The fight was promoted as “The Brawl” by promoter Don King, who was watching the event with United States Troops over seas in Iraq.
Although Don King was coining this fight as a brawl it was anything but that. In my opinion it was probably the worst fight on the card. The night began when Roman "Made In Hell" Karmazin impressively knocked out former WBA Junior Middleweight Champion Alejandro “Terra” Garcia crowning him the WBA Intercontinental Champion. The next fight was in my eyes the most entertaining fight of the evening, it was supposed to be only a tune up fight for the IBF Welterweight Champion Kermit Cintron but Jesse Feliciano had other plans.
The fight started out looking exactly like I thought it would, with Cintron making the challenger look like he was an amateur, but as soon as I thought the fight would never go past three rounds Cintron started fighting like he was weak. He was not throwing the powerful combinations that we have been fortunate to watch in the past. I personally thought that it looked like he was either sick or weakened from dropping over 15 pounds in two weeks for the fight. But Cintron would land a fury of punches causing referee Jon Schorle to call the fight a TKO.
After the fight Cintron was on the ground wincing in pain. He would later tell the ring announcer that he broke his right hand in the first round. But nonetheless Feliciano gave him all that he could handle.
Next was the Main Event, I found myself remotely excited due to the press conference fight that started with a back-hand slap by Mayorga and ended with an uppercut by Vargas opening a wound under Mayorga's right eye. Then the charade that contained Vargas flexing and Mayorga making the gesture of shooting up (making reference to Vargas getting caught previously for using performance enhancing drugs).
They actually had a see-through divider splitting the two fighters apart during the weigh in, something that I have never seen before although many weigh ins have probably needed it. But one of the funniest parts of this whole pre-match episode was when Ricardo was talking about having to fight at a weight that is not even in a weight class; his explanation to the fans was that he had to fight at 164# “because fat boy couldn't lose anymore weight”. Needless to say the whole time this was going on promoter Don King had a 14 inch money making smile stretched across his face like the canvas stretched across his ring. The fight was being marketed as an all out war between two pesonifyers of pugilism, and bitter enemies that somehow to this day had avoided clashing.
The truth came out very soon. El Matador came to the ring first to an onslaught of boos which is not something that he is not used to. Then out came the hometown hero “El Feroz” Ferocious Fernando Vargas. The jig was up as soon as Vargas removed his robe, showing how out of shape he had allowed himself to become. It looked like a battle of out of shape fighters on their last whim of their career. The first few rounds was like watching a head-hunting Butterbean bout.
Slow punches, no footwork, and horrible defense was the recipe for this “Brawl”. It did not live up to the hype or the price tag that jolly Mr. King threw at us. Vargas fought like he was sick and Mayorga just looked too old to still stand toe-to-toe with boxings elite fighters. The only conclusion that I reached at the end of this fight was that I was glad it was over. With the virus that promotion has put on the once prominent world of prize fighting it is almost extinct to see a fight that is worth the 49.95 that you pay for the fight. Hopefully someone makes a change before I am forced to boycott one of my favorite sports. I would like to thank Don King for ruining one of the oldest sporting events that this world has to offer.
