I became a Vargas fan after seeing him fight his heart out against Trinidad and losing. I'm sure Castillo won a lot of fans also with his effort against Corrales.
Any other fights where you became a fan of the losing fighter?
Bert Cooper against Evander Holyfield. Cooper went down in the first round but got back up. He had Holyfield hurt in the third round(I may have rounds confused) and even gave Evander the first knockdown of his career. Then in the fifth round Holyfield just unloads on Cooper to the point where Evander's glove tears. After more punishment the fight was finally stopped in the seventh. Great fight, and a great effort by Cooper.
Cooper also put forth a good losing effort against Ray Mercer. He went down in the first but toughed it out to lose the decision. He took Mercers best shots but still kept coming. Unfortunately for him Mercer was one tough SOB and could take his shots, even with the abcessed tooth swelling up his face.
It was also nice to see old Bert put an end to Richie Melito.
Prior to the Trinidad fight, I couldn't care less about Vargas. After the fight, Vargas became one of my favorite fighters. He's still one of my top 10 fighters today. Proof is that I only tape great fights or fights that feature one of my favorite fighters and I taped Vargas-Joval. I still watch it every once in a while, even though it was not a good fight.
I don't know if I'd call myself a fan now, but watching Mayorga get up repeatedly in his loss to Trindad made me really respect his guts. Everyone I watched that fight with were literally cheering for him as he got to his feet, even though we knew he was gonna get dropped in the next exchange.
Same with Vargas, and the Castillo fight, man, mindblowing.