Fernando Vargas was one of the premier fighters of the late 90's and early 00's... He headlined multiple times on hbo and fought some of the best fighters of his era. But my question is: Where did it all go wrong? Your Thoughts
Just because a fighter lost a handful of fighters doesn't mean anything went wrong... He flirted with greatness in nearly coming out ahead against Trinidad.
Once tainted by the bum maker Duva, Lipstick Fernando really wasn't that good. Just like Bumphus, Ramos, Cyzz, Ayala, Pazienza, Green Golotta etc
Common denominator is/was sloppy defense. All those guys got hit. And Vargas was probably the easiest guy to hit of the group.
No shame in losing to great fighters in Tito and Oscar. He had a short stay at the elite level due to the punishment he took in fights, and also back injuries which hindered his ability. Main Events may have moved him quickly because they were worried he would self-destruct outside the ring. He was a knucklehead and was facing possible prison time for setting up an assault in which some guy got the holy **** kicked out of him with golf clubs. Vargas was also friends with Tyson and there was concern that being around Tyson would hurt Nando, as well as Zab Judah. So Main Events moved him along fast. Trinidad-Vargas was sort of like Chavez-Taylor 1, veteran hard-hitting Latino champs who were beloved in their homeland taking on young undefeated American champs who had good amateur pedigrees. All undefeated fighters, the veterans won by 12th round stoppages in classic fights, and the youngsters took bad beatings. Taylor had better wins/performances after the loss than Vargas did, but both probably lost a little something from those losses. Vargas-Wright was a rough fight, Vargas’s best performance was against Quartey, but that was also a pretty grueling fight. Trinidad hit Vargas with absolute bombs and I remember some discussion on boxing forums (i was at secondsout at the time) that Vargas might not ever be the same because he took so much punishment. Those fears appeared to be founded when he looked like **** against Rivera, dropped and hurt early on (the KD reminded me of the KD in Gatti-Rodriguez), getting hurt later on with body shots, and just looking bad all around. Vargas looked much better when he fought Oscar, perhaps the Stanzonol helped, but ultimately wasn’t good enough and was stopped in another exciting fight. That’s a lot of punishment for a fighter, remember all these fights took place before he was 25. Then the back injuries took its toll. I don’t think he was ever going to have a long stay at the top. His body couldn’t handle it. Some of it was punishment in the ring, but back injuries could just be something that happens to any athlete.
Nothing went wrong, he just got beat by good fighters. I mean if he'd spent his career fighter lesser opponents and beating them all would he be considered more highly?
No. Nor his front runnibg cherry picking fighters. Duva never saw a lie he wouldn't tell. Pure garbage. Him and ayala and cyzx and Whitaker belong together. All scum as people. Not much you can argue on that.
Considering Vargas domestic and gang troubles and his volatile temper i'll say Vargas did extremely well.
I think Vargas had trouble integrating his offense with his defense. So when he was on the attack he lost all defensive responsibility. Vargas actually could slip shots pretty well when he was just doing that and not attacking. He certainly had trouble with guys that had quick hands like Felix Trinidad and later Oscar DelaHoya. I give him credit for taking on some the best fighters that were around. He wanted to be great and he took his shot. I don`t like him cause he is a punk but I respect his willingness for battle.