A week after warriors Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales spotlighted a pay-per-view card, the Aztec Warrior, Fernando Vargas, made his return to action on HBO with a ten round bout against Raymond Joval. In honor of the nature of the above fighters, this week’s edition of Fighting Words will pull no punches, as I tackle Vargas’s comeback, more of the upcoming fights in April, and reader responses to the Morales/Pacquiao showdown.
A Tamer, Lamer Fernando Vargas?
Broadcast on HBO’s Boxing After Dark program after a re-broadcast of the previous week’s fight between Morales and Pacquiao, Fernando Vargas’s return to the ring was being billed as a showcase event.
Vargas was returning from a fifteen-month layoff due to the rehabilitation of a bulging disk in his back, and his opponent was Raymond Joval, a light-hitting middleweight whose only major win was a decision over Sam Soliman.
It was to be Vargas’s only fight at 160 before he stepped back down to junior middleweight, a chance for him to show that he still had the skills and intensity that made him a young champion, leading to entertaining wars with Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.
[details]
A Tamer, Lamer Fernando Vargas?
Broadcast on HBO’s Boxing After Dark program after a re-broadcast of the previous week’s fight between Morales and Pacquiao, Fernando Vargas’s return to the ring was being billed as a showcase event.
Vargas was returning from a fifteen-month layoff due to the rehabilitation of a bulging disk in his back, and his opponent was Raymond Joval, a light-hitting middleweight whose only major win was a decision over Sam Soliman.
It was to be Vargas’s only fight at 160 before he stepped back down to junior middleweight, a chance for him to show that he still had the skills and intensity that made him a young champion, leading to entertaining wars with Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.
[details]