Bradley-Vargas Ends in Controversy

June 29, 2015

Timothy Bradley Wins WBO Interim Belt

Another boxing match, another controversial ending.

What would the sport be without its controversy and drama in the ring?

And Saturday night’s championship bout between Timothy Bradley (32-1, 12 KOs) and Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) provided enough drama to keep the boxing world buzzing– even if the biggest fireworks came in the very last seconds of this battle that took place Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

Scheduled for 12 rounds of action, this war (presented by Top Rank and airing live on HBO) pitted the now five-time champion “Desert Storm” Bradley against the 26-year-old Vargas for the interim WBO welterweight belt.

Heading into the clash, Palm Springs’ Bradley was the 4-1 favorite while the Las Vegas’ Vargas made headlines for switching trainers from Roy Jones Jr. to Erik Morales before this June 27 matchup. Bradley has his longtime trainer Joel Diaz in his corner while Vargas has new coach the beloved Mexican warrior Morales as his chief second. Jessie has worked with myriad of trainers since turning pro including Roger Mayweather, Robert Alcazar, Ismael Salas and Roy Jones Jr. and now has “El Terrible” on his team.

Vargas (a former WBA super lightweight champ) has victories over the likes of Wale Omotoso, Antonio DeMarco, Josesito Lopez, Steve Forbes, etc. but has not been in the same elite ranks that 31-year-old Bradley has been in during his career. Tim has gone toe to toe against Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Ruslan Provodnikov, Joel Casamayor, Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson and more in proving himself as an intense and tough competitor en route of winning championship titles.

But boxing can be the “Theater of the Unexpected” and the Bradley-Vargas duel provided enough twist and turns and last-minute drama that further fueled the crowd.

Before the first bell, Jessie had promised to bring the action from the get-go. The taller Vargas used his jab to keep the speedier Bradley at bay while the pair went head to head. It was a competitive fight early on with the two prizefighters exchanges punches. But the more experienced Bradley began to take over as he pursued Vargas with Tim getting his shots off first. As the rounds progressed, Jessie began to throw less, seemingly waiting for an opening to land a big shot. The Palm Springs puncher dictated the pace in the rounds and wobbled the Vegas fighter in the fourth frame as he continued to aggressively go after Vargas.

As the spectators alternated between raucous chants of “Jessie” and “Bradley” cheers to spur their heroes on, Bradley took over the second half of the fight. While neither boxer is known for their knockout power, the action was enough to sustain the attention of the crowd at StubHub. As the championship rounds commenced, the prediction of Bradley being the overwhelming favorite looked to ring true. “Desert Storm” outclassed and outworked his younger foe, who didn’t utilize his height and reach, not pulling the trigger until the last few seconds of the stanzas. Bradley landed clean solid punches on the face and body of Vargas. The punch stats were close but Bradley appeared to inflict more punishing blows.

Although behind on the scorecards, Vargas did do plenty of damage to the face of his adversary with Bradley’s left side of the face swelling up. And it’s not over till the final bell rings, right?

And that’s when the script was flipped. The plot suddenly thickened. As the clock ticked down to the last few second of this fight, Bradley was headed for victory, looking to add a fifth championship strap to his cache of belts. But then came the controversy.

In the biggest shot of the night, Vargas landed a huge overhand right, clearly rocking the champ. Jessie came forward trying to snatch the victory in the waning seconds of the bout while Bradley evaded another big shot, clinching and backing up. At the sound of the 10-second warning from the clappers, referee Pat Russell grabbed Vargas off of Bradley and signed that the fight was over. Jessie thought the ref was calling off the fight thus giving Vargas the victory.

Chaos ensued.

An elated Vargas jumped up on the ring post in celebrating this perceived victory.

After a long wait, the suspense grew as the confused camps celebrated.

Then came the official announcement from ring emcee Lupe Contreras. He explained that the decision would go to the scorecards of the three judges thus giving Timothy Bradley the “W” with a unanimous decision of 116-112, 117-111 and 115-112.

California Boxing Hall of Famer Pat Russell was interviewed in the ring by HBO’s Max Kellerman further explaining that Russell thought he heard the bell and made an honest mistake in declaring the fight over. The veteran referee’s reply was met with a loud chorus of boos from the audience in the stands.

Another night of boxing full of last-minute drama and controversy.

And in every good drama, there is an Act I, Act II and Act III. So will there be an Act IV–a rematch– between the two gladiators?

Bradley vs. Vargas II: Will you watch it?

At the mic, Jessie asked Timmy for a rematch with the new WBO champ agreeing that this could be a possibility.

“We start off where we left off…” Vargas vowed as the SoCal fans in the stadium roared.

Stay tuned to see if there will be a Bradley-Vargas sequel in this “Theater of the Unexpected” in the boxing ring!

Photos by Marlene Marquez