Vargas-Salido battle to draw
WBC World super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas and former titleholder Orlando Salido were bound to have a great fight. Even before the two stepped into the ring across from each other many boxing experts were saying it would be the fight of the year. After all, Vargas was coming off the 2015 fight of the year against Takashi Miura when won the belt by ninth round TKO; and Salido was coming off back-to-back wars against Roman Martinez that were non-stop action from beginning to end.
The beauty of this fight was that is lived up to the hype. Vargas and Salido went at it for 13 rounds and at the end, it was impossible to separate the two as two judges scored it 114-114 and one had it 115-113. Vargas was disappointed with the majority draw, but he remained champion.
Both guys just kept throwing punched. Nothing was slowing them down. Vargas landed 386 of 1,184 thrown while Salido landed 328 of 939 punches thrown. The two highly aggressive fighters traded blows and never let up.
It was the type of fight that boxing really needs. Neither guy has huge names, but they are two of the most exciting fighters around and luckily it happened because in April, the fight nearly got canceled when Vargas failed a random drug test conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association for the banned substance clenbuterol. However, the California State Athletic Commission met with both fights and their camps and decided to let the fight go on as it was believed that the result was tainted by meat in Mexico.
And with the draw, let’s just hope that it results in a rematch, because more of that incredible back-and-forth action that was non-stop.
Corey Johns
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