Is Fernando Vargas One Of The Best Examples Of A Fighter Ruined Prematurely?

I love the excuses for Vargas the guy was a world champion so how can anyone say it is too early to go into a unification fight with a guy who had come up in weight in Trinidad? If you are not prepared to fight other champions then don't fight for a world title.
I respect that Vargas took the fight but the guy was a drug cheat he was roided up and got KO'd again by a guy coming up in weight in Oscar then when he was off the juice he continued getting his ass kicked by blown up welterweights in Mosely and Mayorga.

 

That first hook Tito landed in the 1st round on Vargas was insane. Not many fighters ever recover from that kind of first round.

He was cheated pretty good in that 4th round if anything.

 

Not really no it's not like Vargas was green at world level at that stage in his career.

Vargas had already won 6 world title fights and had been battle tested against world class fighters like Winky Wright, Ike Quartey, over 12 rounds.

Vargas also didn't get ruined by Trinidas this is a myth.

He regained after the Trinidad fight with a solid win over Wilfredo Rivera.

Not to mention Vargas was ahead on points against ODLH for 9 rounds until ODLH come on late and turned the fight round with a left hook late on.

Vargas simply fought great fighters who better than him no shame in that.

 

Probably but he was still winning the fight.

 

Bowe.

 

Bowe was never in over his head and wasn't rushed along very quickly.

 

He was still ruined quickly. He was 28 for the third Holy fight.

 

I would say Curry, Duran ruined him. Vargas fought competitively with Tito. He also had a successful amateur career with twice as many fights as Tito. He was as ready as he was ever going to be and he already had beaten Winky and Quartey. He was never going to beat Oscar regardless.

 

You mean Honeyghan ruined Curry? I think Duran ruined Davey Moore.

 

Yes correct, thanks, good catch.

 

Quite possibly so
There seems several posters I have seen before that don't seem to fully understand these questions
Vargas was a very good fighter on the way up suddenly thrown in against a very experienced world champion
Sometimes a fighter is never the same once they lose their undefeated record

There are several times I have felt a fighter may have gone further if matched a different way on the way up

Going back to Vargas and recalling who was around during that time
Say he had have managed to get the David Reid fight before Trinidad got that fight.
Vargas (assuming he won) would have gained massive big fight experience, won a unification in what would have been a massive headline fight at that time making him a unified Jnr MW champ with WBA and IBF titles
Then say a few defences perhaps against (assuming he wins) Bronco McKart and Oba Carr.
Now I would have favoured Vargas in the above fantasy fights at that time, he would have been 23-0. Been in a big unification, made more defences and likely be more mentally prepared

Would that have changed the result?
Who knows, but I certainly don't think it would have hindered

 

I think Main Events was worried about Fernando Vargas self destructing outside the ring, so they moved him along quickly.

Vargas was getting into legal trouble, including facing time for beating a guy with a golf club.

Meldrick Taylor was always likely to have a short stay at the top, but the first Chavez fight sped it up. He took a terrible physical beating.

Taylor moved up to 147 after the first Chavez fight, citing weight issues. I don’t know how true this was and how difficult it really was for him to make 140, but I can believe it given his stocky frame. He only made 140 once again in his career, when he was likely desperate for a Chavez rematch in October 94’.

A year after the first Chavez fight, he beat Aaron Davis for a world title at 147, and looked good doing so. It was the 2nd best win of his career. But the decline came fast after that during the calendar year of 92’. Gutting out a tough win over Glenwood Brown, then the stoppage losses to Terry Norris and Cristano Espana.

I think his team saw the writing on the wall after the Glenwood Brown fight. Taylor was already small and devoid of power at 147, and he got dropped twice and hurt several times in that bout. Then they have Taylor move up AGAIN to fight Terry Norris? I think they saw what a difficult test he had in his mandatory Cristano Espana, a more natural WW with a big edge in height and reach. So they figured they’d make a big payday before a likely loss.

Espana is another example of why I think Taylor was always going to be a shooting star….147 was about to be loaded. Taylor won his world title in March 91’. His mandatory was Espana, other top WWs included the hard hitting Simon Brown and Maurice Blocker (about half a foot in height and reach on Taylor). Stablemate Pernell Whitaker was about to go up to 147. Felix Trinidad won a world title in 93’. Ike Quartey was about to hit the scene too.

In addition to the beatings Taylor took in fights, I always imagined him in Philly gym wars too.

 

ridiculous take

we see guys all the time win a title and marinate in it for years

also, he was arguably beating Mosley their first fight until it got stopped due to his eye and he was beyond shot when he got to mayorga

 

LOL Vargas fans want to give him credit for almost beating people like Oscar and Mosley. Mosley sent him to the shadow realm in the rematch and Vargas was juiced to the eye balls against Oscar.