Adrien Broner and Jessie Vargas spent 12 rounds trading punches. A few moments later, they exchanged angry words and opposite views of what transpired.
The one thing the two fighters agreed upon? A rematch should be in the offing.
Vargas and Broner fought to a 12-round majority draw in a welterweight fight Saturday night at the Barclays Center.Judge Julie Lederman scored the fight 115-113 for Broner, and Eric Marlinski and Kevin Morgan had it 114-114.
According to the scorecards, Lederman and Marlinski had Broner winning 105-104 heading into the 12th round, while Morgan had Vargas ahead, 105-05. Lederman and Morgan scored the 12th for Broner, 10-9, while Marlinski had Vargas winning the round, 10-9.
After the ruling was announced, Broner (33-3-1) and Vargas (28-2-1) exchanged words in the ring in front of Showtime ringside reporter Jim Gray.
Following the first round in which the fighters appeared to be feeling each other out, Vargas was the aggressor in the early rounds and landed more punches (203-194) and threw more punches (839-507). Still neither fighter knocked the other down, although Broner slipped to the canvas late in the fifth round. Broner did open a cut over Vargas' left eye.
"The cut," Vargas said, "bothered me."
Starting in the sixth, Broner began pressuring Vargas, landing heavy blows.
The two ended the ninth and 10th rounds by exchanging heavy punches, and they finished the fight swinging wildly at each other.
"I thought I won the fight," Vargas added. "At the end of the day I can't argue because I was fighting on the inside of the ring so I don't know what you saw from the outside. I was landing clean blows. It was a good fight but at the end of the day I can't dispute the decision."
Broner said he would do a rematch, but in his hometown of Cincinnati.
"I would love to fight Vargas again, but let's go back to my town to do it," Broner said.
