Never did I think watching Francisco Vargas systematically demolishing Rod Salka would be satisfying on en emotional level, but then Salka showed up with those trunks. Thankfully “Bandido” Vargas delivered on the expected beating and all was well. Andrew Cancio also picked up a win over an unbeaten prospect in the co-main event.
Rod Salka (24-5, 4 KOs) came to the fight against Mexican Francisco Vargas (25-1-2, 18 KOs) wearing trunks that proudly proclaimed “America First” over a brick wall print. No matter your politics, that is a low move as a human being in 2018. Given that he isn’t even a third of the fighter of his Mexican opponent, it was also a stupid move. Francisco Vargas was always going to punish him, but it must have felt even better after seeing those trunks.
Salka was in the fight for about two rounds in that he’d get a harmless shot or two in without getting hurt too bad, but he wasn’t competitive in terms of being close to winning rounds. The thorough thrashing began in the third as Salka’s movement slowed and Bandido Vargas began landing a higher volume of power shots. When they traded in the fourth Salka landed somewhat evenly, but he had no power while Vargas shots were big.
Vargas put Salka down with a flurry to the body and then upstairs with an uppercut near the end of the fifth. After the beating continued through the sixth, Pennsylvania native’s corner pulled him from the fight. Despite the easy and satisfying win here for the Mexican former titleholder, I don’t think he really looked improved or different. Salka could basically hit him at will and landed some real shots that would have been much more problematic if they came from basically anyone but Rod Salka. Francisco is a fan friendly action fighter and I will always look forward to his brawls, but I do think he has problem taken too much damage and isn’t defensively responsible enough to win at the absolute top of the division.
Andrew Cancio (18-4-2, 14 KOs) returned from a 572 day layoff to upset the apple cart by stopping new Golden Boy prospect Aidar Sharibayev (7-1, 6 KOs) in the tenth round of the show’s opener. Sharibayev boxed well and looked like a nice prospect for two rounds, but he became more stationary in the third. Cancio capitalized, hurting him early in the round and dropping him right before the bell. Sharibayev rebounded with a decent fourth round, but he was dropped again the fifth and battered around the ring thereafter. His corner threw in the towel when he was hurt for about the fiftieth time in the contest early in the tenth.
Obviously Golden Boy had some level of faith in Aidar Sharibayev to give him this assignment, but this seemed like pretty bad prospect matchmaking to me. Andrew Cancio got dominated by a world class talent in JoJo Diaz and has been inactive, yes, but he also holds wins over Rene Alvarado, Jerry Belmontes, and Rocky Juarez. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but these are good midlevels guys. Beating someone with this sort of resume is a tall ask for a seven fight pro; too tall in this case.
