Just rewatching winky wright vs Fernando Vargas! I believe this was flipping Fernando's prime. I think he was in his teens still or his early twenties. Winky brought the heat. The way Fernando boxed in that fight reminded me of a prime Miguel Cotto. Boxing skills were evidently on display. Just like Mike Tyson, Fernando peaked at an early age. However he was the youngest junior middle weight champ in history. Where were Fernando's boxing skills on display vs Oscar or Tito? Tito ruined him. Going into that fight Vargas was trying to outfight the puncher not box the puncher. It was the wrong gameplan! I did not see any slick boxing skills after the Trinidad fight. Even in the Oscar de la Hoya fight, Fernando was ruined, slow plodding, on roids and very stiff looking. Oscar didn't have to do that much to get him outta there. Oscar gets too much credit for this fight than anybody else who beat Vargas. And the list goes on: Mosley fights: 1 and 2 poor displays, Ricardo Mayorga fight : Vargas lost to a man who essentially lost every big fight (except for 6 heads Lewis and the spectacular Forrest fights 1 and 2) By the time Fernando fought Raymond joval and who was it?... Javier castillejo, in those fights he looked brutal. Stiff like a zombie, slow, primitive boxing skills. Yup ruined at a young age. Fernando Vargas seemed to want to do one thing in his career well maybe 2, beating dela Hoya and/ or Trinidad. But the Oscar fight was his sentimental goal. I like Vargas as a fighter. There's no conspiracies, Larry merchant asked if el Feroz hurt his back in the Oscar fight. Who knows? But it was all because of the destruction from Tito.
Fernando was a tough fighter. Very good and very exciting to watch. He just had the misfortune of fighting a lot of greats early
He was a shot fighter after Tito. You could see that in the Rivera and Flores fights. Then throw in his back problems, massive ballooning in weight and the time off between those poor showings and the Oscar fight and he was a shot fighter in that ring. Shame, because he looked like he could be a great one. He was sensational against Quartey.
This. We can just wonder how much Vargas had achieved with a more cautious management, kinda a Cus D'Amato who had very clear what fighters to avoid like poison. On the other side, soon or later Vargas was going to cross paths with Tito or Oscar; thus in overall terms his career was going to be more on less similar to what it was in RL.
Yep, ultimately all roads were going to lead to Oscar and Tito or Tito and Oscar, in whatever order. He just wasn’t quite up to that caliber imo even at his best, so I think it probably worked out just the way it would have no matter how guided.
The thing is Vargas was battle tested against good opposition before fighting the likes of Tito, remember Vargas had beaten Yori Boy Campas, Raul Marquez, Winky Wright, Ike Quartey. And he showed he was elite against those opponents even overcoming some bad moments in those fights. So it's not like Vargas was thrown to the wolves he was well established as a proven world class fighter by the time he fought Tito. I mean yeah Vargas could've padded his record some more against lesser notable fighters but i don't think that alters the outcome vs the likes of Tito or ODLH. Vargas was a very good fighter he just wasn't quite great and he fell short against Tito and ODLH who were great fighters and there's no shame in that.
