As expected, WBC super bantamweight titleholder Rey Vargas made a successful defense of his belt on Miguel Cotto’s HBO broadcast farewell card. Colombian opponent Oscar Negrete was game, but he was also outgunned. There was also cut drama late.
Rey Vargas (31-0, 22 KOs) started the fight an excellent opening frame. He kept his range and dug beautifully to the body. Oscar Negrete (17-1, 7 KOs) charged in when he physically could, but he struggled to both stay in or get much done while he was inside. The second was much the same, but maybe with Negrete getting a little more done to the body.
The Colombian challenger continued his improvement into the third as he kept up his pressure and landed a few nice blows upstairs, but it still wasn’t enough to win the round. Vargas lit him up whenever he wanted to. Part of this was definitely because Oscar Negrete is simply not a super bantamweight. I’d be curious to see if he could even make super flyweight.
The fight continued in this trend for a while. Oscar Negrete would put on pressure and get a little work done. Some rounds he’d even land a flashy shot upstairs, but it was never enough to win rounds. Rey Vargas just kept his range and worked well both upstairs and downstairs. For not being a super great athlete, Vargas’s success with and commitment too keeping his range is pretty impressive.
The Mexican titleholder was bleeding by the seventh, however, thanks to Negrete’s constant effort. Inspired by red, the challenger put on his first real successful rally of the fight in the last thirty seconds of the round. Even worse for Vargas, a bad cut opened over his other eye as well. This further energized Negrete and he charged to maybe his first won round of the fight.
It didn’t matter. Rey Vargas restabilized in the ninth. While the cut work done on his face was a little questionable in between rounds, he was able to cruise to the finish from there. Negrete just got a little tired after all that effort. He indicated a left shoulder injury before the final round as well. Scores came back 120-108 and 119-118 twice.
