Vargas Able to Overcome Another Cold Start

EL PASO —  Again, Fernando Vargas felt the crunch of a clean, powerful punch against the side of his head.

Again, a look of shock and dismay crossed his face.

Again, his legs gave out and he tumbled to the canvas.

But this time, the man standing over him was Wilfredo Rivera, not Felix Trinidad.

This time, Vargas was able to clear his head, regain control and pound out a victory, winning by TKO 39 seconds into the sixth round of their nontitle bout at the Don Haskins Center in front of a crowd of 9,212.

“I got caught cold in the second round,” Vargas said, “but you know me. You have to take me out on a stretcher to stop me.”

While Vargas may have won in the ring, he lost still more ground in his claim to being one of the best fighters in the world, a man worthy of sharing a ring with Trinidad, Shane Mosley or Oscar De La Hoya.

Questions were raised when Trinidad knocked Vargas down five times last December to hand the Oxnard fighter his first defeat.

His supporters were quick to point out that Vargas had lost to the man who is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

But in Rivera, Vargas was facing a man who turned 32 Friday, a man never known for his power.

And if Rivera had followed up on his lightning strike, with Vargas obviously hurt and unsteady when he arose, the outcome might have been different.

Instead, Rivera seemed as stunned as Vargas that he had put Vargas down. He fought cautiously for the rest of the round.

“I got hit with a good punch,” Vargas said. “I still boxed after the knockdown. I still have a lot to learn. I’m only 23.”

What did Vargas think when he found himself on the canvas?

“I’d better get up,” he said.

Robert Mittleman, Rivera’s manager, felt victory was within the grasp of his fighter at that moment, but Rivera failed to grab it.

“He never put enough pressure on,” Mittleman said. “He didn’t finish Vargas off when he had the chance.”

In the third round, Vargas (21-1, 19 knockouts) began to find his range. He became aggressive, got his jab working and began to inflict damage on Rivera (32-5-1, 20).

A cut opened up under Rivera’s left eye. By the fourth, he had another cut over his left eye.

Rivera appeared to hurt Vargas with a left hook to the body in that fourth round, but that turned out to be Rivera’s last shot.

By the sixth round, he was offering only token opposition. Up against the ropes, Rivera went down from a body shot from Vargas’ right hand followed by a left to the head.

As Rivera got up, Mittleman, seeing the bruised and bleeding face of his fighter, tossed a white towel into the ring.

“He hit me hard with two head butts,” Rivera said. “He is a warrior, very strong and he can recover well.”

Rivera had promised his wife, Denise, he would retire if he lost again. If Rivera follows up on that promise, he will have lost to only world-class fighters, having also been defeated by Pernell Whitaker, De La Hoya and Mosley.

As for Vargas, he must answer in his own mind why he comes out cold. He was knocked down twice in the first round by Trinidad, and now comes the second-round knockdown by Rivera.

“I don’t know why,” he said.

He’d better find out. Fast.

The semi-main event turned into a classic brawl between North American Boxing Federation lightweight champion Juan Lazcano (27-2-1, 20) and the challenger, former two-time champion John-John Molina (52-7, 33).

Molina got in only a week of training after agreeing to fill in for Jose Luis Castillo, who dropped out of the match. But Molina made it into the 11th round in a battle in which a total of 1,341 punches were thrown, 825 by Molina. Molina’s corner threw in the towel about a minute into the 11th, but referee Jerry McKenzie didn’t see it. That allowed the fight to go on for several more seconds until Lazcano finally dropped Molina to the canvas, the fight stopped at the 1:06 mark.

In a preliminary match, Jose “Shibata” Flores (42-8, 26) defended his North American Boxing Assn. junior-middleweight championship with a fifth-round TKO over Rene Herrera (25-13, 17). Flores knocked Herrera down once in the fourth round and twice in the fifth before the bout was stopped 53 seconds into the round.

In another prelim, Francisco “Panchito” Bojada, a 17-year-old 2000 Mexican Olympian, improved to 4-0 with four knockouts by stopping David Montes (9-4, 6) at 2:48 of the third round of a scheduled six-rounder. Montes was knocked down twice.