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Light Middleweight Mosley Stops Vargas in 10th Round
Shane Mosley, right, catches Fernando Vargas with a right hand in the eighth round of their junior middleweight bout Saturday night.
Shane Mosley saw Fernando Vargas' left eye swelling more with each round, so he kept peppering the injury with jabs and combinations.
"As the rounds went on, it got bigger and bigger, and I went, 'Wow, look what we have here,"' Mosley said of the knot just above Vargas' eye.
By the end of the seventh round, Vargas' eye was swollen shut. Referee Joe Cortez finally stopped it and declared Mosley the winner in the 10th round after he landed several hard shots to Vargas' head.
"He tried to push me and shove me, and I was trying to keep myself away because he was so heavy. That fight showed that I'm a very strong welterweight," said Mosley, a natural welterweight meeting Vargas as a junior middleweight.
Mosley puffed up Vargas' eye below the brow with a hard right in the opening round, then kept punching to the left side of Vargas' face as the fight went on.
By the end of the seventh round, Vargas could not see out of the eye, although he kept gamely coming at Mosley.
There were no knockdowns in the bout at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Mosley was ahead by one point on two judges' cards, and behind by a point on the other when the fight ended 1:22 into the 10th.
Vargas claimed the swelling came from a head butt, and said he thought he controlled the fight.
"I was wondering why they stopped the fight," Vargas said. "I was the one pushing the action, backing him into the ropes. I definitely want a rematch. Let's see what he says."
The 34-year-old Mosley, who had won just four of his last eight fights, used his quicker hands to effectively counter-punch Vargas, who did land several hard rights, but never any telling blows.
Mosley, from Pomona, Calif., improved to 42-4 with his 36th knockout. The 28-year-old Vargas, from Oxnard, Calif., is 26-3, with 22 knockouts.
Mosley weighed 152 and Vargas 153 1/2, a half-pound below the 154-pound limit.
On the undercard, Jhonny Gonzalez stopped Mark Johnson in the eighth round of their scheduled 12-round bout, and unbeaten heavyweight Calvin Brock stopped journeyman Zuri Lawrence in the fifth round of their 10-round match.
The Gonzalez-Johnson fight was scheduled to be for Gonzalez's WBO bantamweight title, but the 34-year-old Johnson didn't make the 118-pound limit, weighing in at 119 1/2. Gonzalez, 117, from Mexico City, is 32-4 with 28 knockouts. Johnson, from Washington, is 44-5 with 28 knockouts.
Brock, a 2000 Olympian from Charlotte, N.C., ran his record to 28-0 with his 22nd knockout, stopping Lawrence, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 2:58 into the fifth round with a powerful left hook. Brock weighed in at 231 pounds. Lawrence (20-11-4) weighed 232.
Source: AP
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