Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) dodged a bullet in the 12th round to defeat previously unbeaten Jessie Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous tonight to win the interim WBO welterweight title at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. In the last 30 seconds of the round, Vargas connected with a huge right hand that had Bradley out of his feet.
Vargas then spent 11 seconds trying to line Bradley up for another big hand, when suddenly referee Pat Russell halted the fight with 10 seconds to go because he thought he had heard the final belt. Vargas, thinking the referee had stopped the fight due to Bradley being badly hurt, immediately started jobbing up and down celebrating thinking he’d scored a knockout.
Vargas continued to think he had a KO for a little while longer until one of his team members finally broke the bad news to him. Vargas’ face then changed from a smile to a frown, as he realized that Russell had taken away his chance of finishing off Bradley by stopping the fight with 10 seconds to go in the round.
The outcome was never in doubt as to who won the fight. Bradley was the far better fighter in the ring tonight, as he won by the scores of 116-112, 117-111, and 115-112.
The referee Pat Russell looked really embarrassed after the fight. He had to explain himself to a number of people while the crowd booed him constantly. This is an experienced referee but he really blew it tonight with his mistake. It hurt Vargas most of all because he was robbed of a chance to win with the screw up by the referee.
Vargas didn’t look like he belonged in the ring with Bradley. I know these guys are both Top Rank fighters, so it made sense for Bob Arum to put the fight together, but it wasn’t a competitive fight. In the future, Arum needs to make sure he picks out quality fighters from his stable if he’s going to setup in house fights involving his Top Rank promotional company because Vargas looked awful. There are much better fighters in the welterweight division than Vargas. That guy needs to go back down to 140 and stay there permanently. If Arum wants to make fights involving Bradley with his other Top Rank stable fighters, then he needs to match him up against guys like Manny Pacquiao, Mikey Garcia, Brandon Rios, Diego Chaves or Terence Crawford.
Other action on the card:
Abraham Lopez UD 4 Joann Valenzuela
Ed Brown TKO 2 Jose Maruffo
