Fernando Vargas, rushed along or just not that good?

[Khalid X]

Well my opinion on Vargas is that he lost his motivation/dedication to the sport, which is why he ballooned up in weight between fights, and payed the price against guys like Trinidad and DLH who were more hungrier than him. He has no one to blame but himself.

[daggum]

vargas and trinidad were the top 2 junior middleweights so were they not supposed to fight? he had already beaten 4 top 10 fighters. the guy had enough experience. you can be shot when you are 30 and you can be in your prime in your early 20's.

[Mr. Ryan]

I don't know how people can say that he just wasn't that good. The only people that he lost to were great fighters, until he ran into Ricardo Mayorga at the very end.

Vargas wasn't really overmatched I don't feel. He was given five title defenses before facing Trinidad in what was a great fight. The demand was just there for him to face Trinidad. That was the fight people wanted to see.

I did think Winky Wright was a big stepup though, and that Wright put some real damage on him there.

What really did Vargas in though was his back problem. In the latter part of his career he couldn't even bend over really.

[Ray*]

Dont feel he was rushed, But he fought a good steady competition very early, Wright, Quartey etc so he had experience even at an early age.

[prinzemanspopa]

The people who use the argument that Vargas lost his biggest fights in an attempt to discredit him are people that know absolutely nothing about his career and have only seen his fights against Trinidad,De La Hoya,Mosley and Mayorga.These people are not qualified,nor do they even have the right to discuss such a topic.They are newbs that know absolutely nothing about this sport and it's history.



If Vargas wasn't shot after the Trinidad fight,he was certainly damaged goods.One only has to see his two fights following the Trinidad fight to see just how woefully average he looked compared to the fights leading up to the Trinidad fight,and even the Trinidad fight itself.Regardless,it took an elite fighter in De La Hoya to give him his second loss in an exciting,highly competitive fight that was pretty close at the time of the stoppage.



Vargas was definitely shot after the De La Hoya fight.I believe he suffered a pretty serious back injury not long afterwards which limited him physically even further and he ended up taking a pretty lengthy layoff to recover.He was matched carefully during this time to preserve his career long enough so he could make another big-money fight rematch against De La Hoya.



You watch Vargas in his early twenties and then watch him in his late twenties and you will see a drastic difference.The balance and footwork that he displayed earlier in his career was no longer there,which meant him becoming more of a stationary target,thus giving opponents a much easier job in landing power punches with consistency.His legs were completely shot,and his reflexes had declined at quite an alarming rate.



Fact is,a young title holder managed to beat an Ike Quartey that just a year previous spent long periods of a fight jabbing the ever loving sh^t out a prime De La Hoya,and one that beat a prime Winky Wright that just a few years later,as a more predictable and one-dimensional fighter,would become one of the very best fighters in the sport.Also picking up wins against world title holders Yori Boy Campas and Raul Marquez - and did all this in just twenty professional fights before putting up a fantastic effort aganst one of the best and most accomplished fighters of the last twenty years.



Vargas was a brilliant young talent and a credit to the sport and his people.I wish there were more young talents like him around today with a similar mentality.

[Stromprophet]

The people who use the argument that Vargas lost his biggest fights in an attempt to discredit him are people that know absolutely nothing about his career and have only seen his fights against Trinidad,De La Hoya,Mosley and Mayorga.These people are not qualified,nor do they even have the right to discuss such a topic.They are newbs that know absolutely nothing about this sport and it's history.



If Vargas wasn't shot after the Trinidad fight,he was certainly damaged goods.One only has to see his two fights following the Trinidad fight to see just how woefully average he looked compared to the fights leading up to the Trinidad fight,and even the Trinidad fight itself.Regardless,it took an elite fighter in De La Hoya to give him his second loss in an exciting,highly competitive fight that was pretty close at the time of the stoppage.



Vargas was definitely shot after the De La Hoya fight.I believe he suffered a pretty serious back injury not long afterwards which limited him physically even further and he ended up taking a pretty lengthy layoff to recover.He was matched carefully during this time to preserve his career long enough so he could make another big-money fight rematch against De La Hoya.



You watch Vargas in his early twenties and then watch him in his late twenties and you will see a drastic difference.The balance and footwork that he displayed earlier in his career was no longer there,which meant him becoming more of a stationary target,thus giving opponents a much easier job in landing power punches with consistency.His legs were completely shot,and his reflexes had declined at quite an alarming rate.



Fact is,a young title holder managed to beat an Ike Quartey that just a year previous spent long periods of a fight jabbing the ever loving sh^t out a prime De La Hoya,and one that beat a prime Winky Wright that just a few years later,as a more predictable and one-dimensional fighter,would become one of the very best fighters in the sport.Also picking up wins against world title holders Yori Boy Campas and Raul Marquez - and did all this in just twenty professional fights before putting up a fantastic effort aganst one of the best and most accomplished fighters of the last twenty years.



Vargas was a brilliant young talent and a credit to the sport and his people.I wish there were more young talents like him around today with a similar mentality.

Excellent post.

Those divisions were really loaded back then.

Mosely, De La Hoya, Trinidad, Ike Quartey, Vernon Forrest, Vargas, etc.

[BorderPatrol]

He got rushed into Tito's left hook in the first round.

[SCtrojansbaby]

Fighting Tito Trinidad at 22 years old is a terrible idea

[Swag Hustla]

Vargas was rushed.

He was one week shy of his 23rd birthday when he fought Tito and was fighting pro for only 3 years.

Then he fought De La Hoya less than two years later.

Despite being fed to the lions at a young age, he did pretty damn well in both those fights, even in losing efforts.

Vargas took very risky fights against Quartey, Campas, Winky and beat them all. I mean he beat Campas for his first title after fighting for a little more than just a year.

One thing is for sure, Vargas had balls and you have to give him credit for taking on elite fighters despite having such little pro experience.

That can't be said about most fighters in this generation.

[-Huey-]

ye the tito fight was epic, an he was definately giving him some problems, i heard he had a car accient somewhere along his career, i wonder if that had anything to do with it?

DLH-Vargas was waaaaaaay better! Fight had a storyline, real bad blood between the two, most expected Vargas to win because Oscar was "done."