De La Hoya cripples Vargas in 11th round
Tim Dahlberg, Associated Press, Las Vegas
Oscar De La Hoya settled a neighborhood feud and left no doubt who was the best 154-pounder (69.9-kilogram) in the world Saturday night, stopping Fernando Vargas with a vicious assault in the 11th round of their grudge match.
De La Hoya knocked down Vargas for the first time in the fight with a left hook in the final round, then pummeled him along the ropes until referee Joe Cortez moved in to stop the fight at 1:48 of the round.
The end came after a fight of ebb and flow that saw both fighters take the advantage at various times before a roaring crowd of 11,425 at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.
De La Hoya was ahead on two scorecards and behind on the third when he caught Vargas with a left hook that exposed the chin that got him knocked down five times by Felix Trinidad.
De La Hoya not only retained his WBC title, but added the WBA title Vargas held and settled a feud between the two Los Angeles area rivals.
"Vargas was a very, very strong puncher," De La Hoya said. "I had to be patient, go to the body, feint, use combinations. The strength really surprised me."
Vargas had said he would rather die in the ring than lose and he never gave up. But he was defenseless in De La Hoya's corner and taking a beating when Cortez finally stopped it.
Both fighters were bleeding and both were landing big punches, but De La Hoya turned the fight around after a bad fifth round and was the stronger and faster fighter from then on.
Vargas seemed to be on the verge of dominating the fight in the fifth round when he landed right hand after right hand to De La Hoya's head.
"He's yours. He's liable to quit. You got him," Vargas trainer Eduardo Garcia told Vargas after the round.
But De La Hoya began moving more and using his left jab, then finding the range with his right hand in the middle rounds.
Still, Vargas pressed on and was winning the 10th round until, with just a few seconds left in the round, De La Hoya hit him with a left hook that caused his legs to wobble.
De La Hoya was all over Vargas when the bell sounded to end the round.
"Wake up, wake up," Garcia yelled at Vargas in the corner after the 10th round.
Vargas left the ring without talking, and doctors advised him to go to the hospital for a precautionary checkup.
"At first I thought he was too strong for me," De La Hoya said. "But when I was turning and he was missing I knew he would get tired. I thought he got tired about the seventh round."
Vargas was a 2-1 underdog, but De La Hoya had conceded before the fight that his opponent was bigger and stronger than he was.
It looked like that was the case when Vargas caught De La Hoya with a right hand that raised a bruise on De La Hoya's right cheek in the first round and ended it with De La Hoya pinned on the ropes.
De La Hoya, though, came back in the second round to use his jab well and keep Vargas off him. The fight then became one of ebb and flow, with each fighter trying to impose his will on the other.
De La Hoya earned at least US$14 million for the work, but it was clear that this fight meant much more than that. Vargas had expressed his intense dislike for De La Hoya for years and had vowed to beat him and send him into retirement.