Jessie Vargas improved his record to 18-0 Saturday night in the second fight of the pay per view featuring Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. Unfortunately, the action was lacking as the crowd was audibly displeased with both Vargas and Forbes.
Vargas seems to be a hot and cold fighter at times. During his last fight with Lanardo Tyner, the action was fast and furious as both fighters looked to destroy each other, constantly launching vicious combinations meant to put an immediate end to the fight. During this fight Vargas seemed content to cruise to an easy, unexcited decision. And in what looked like a glorified sparring session, that is exactly what he did.
Of course what might not be pleasing to the spectator may be what is most beneficial for Vargas’ career. Longtime mentor Jeff Mayweather was critical of Vargas and his performance against Tyner saying Jessie constantly took unnecessary chances. Rather than winning the fight with his superior skill, Vargas opted to slug it out with the rugged, but outclassed Tyner. Too many fights like that are bound to shorten a career and/or lead to a loss that he never should take. So using your skill to win while never putting yourself in harms way is right out of the Mayweather playbook.
As for Forbes, it is difficult to find blame with his lackluster performance. Getting just over a week’s notice for a fight you were not prepared for hardly lends itself to one’s best effort. Yet it is impossible to turn down the opportunity to fight on any pay paer view featuring Floyd Mayweather. As he enters the back end of his career, this was a great chance to get his name back out there once again. Unfortunately for Forbes, it was just a little more than he could handle at the moment. In hindsight he might have been wise to turn the fight down, but any boxer that is a true warrior is going to jump at the opportunity. That’s what Forbes did and for that he deserves credit.
Although the fight was a bit of a clunker, I don’t think we should hold it against either. Vargas showed that his pure boxing skill is as just about as good as it gets. And if he doesn’t choose to slug it out, he has the tools to beat almost anyone. It remains to be seen if in the future we will see the Vargas of tonight or the one that stays in the trenches to slug it out. As for Forbes, it’s hard to pull the curtains on his career based off of this one poor performance on extremely short notice. He has the courage and the will needed to keep going. Let’s hope the next time they enter the ring both show more than we saw tonight.
