Winner By a Broken Nose

By Gary Herman (ringside)

Rafael Marquez defeated Israel Vasquez by TKO to win the WBC Super Bantamweight championship. The referee stopped the all-action battle after the seventh round at the request of Vasquez’s corner. The corner stopped the fight due to Vasquez having trouble breathing after an injured nose. Marquez lifts his record to 37-3 (33 Kos) while Vasquez drops to 41-4 (30 Kos).

The fight stopped suddenly after Vasquez suffered a vicious broken nose. While sitting on the stool, Vasquez complained that he could not breathe. Trainer Freddie Roach asked Vasquez if he could continue. Vasquez said, “I can’t go on. I can’t go on.” The referee called for the bell.

For Marquez, the win marks his first victory at 122 lbs. For many years, he dominated the 118 lb weight class without ever having a career defining victory. By defeating Vasquez, Marquez now has a major name on his resume.

Since the fight ended due to an injury as opposed to a clear verdict, the boxing fans should expect to see a rematch of the two.

Promoter Gary Shaw confirmed as much when he said there is a signed rematch clause.
Shaw said, “We’re going to do this fight again. It’s just a question of when Raffy gets better and when Vasquez gets better. Maybe in September.”

Up until the stoppage of the fight, the two Mexican boxers fought a very close battle. At the time of the conclusion, one judge had the fight even while the other two had Marquez up by two points.

Marquez also thought the fight was very close. He said, “It was a close, tough fight. Vasquez was the first boxer to knock me down with a punch to the jaw. I am going to prepare very hard for the rematch.”

The fight started with both boxers looking to feel each other out. However, as the first round was coming to an end, Marquez buckled Vasquez with straight right hand. Vasquez regained his balance to finish the round strongly.

The only knockdown of the fight occurred in the third round. With Marquez backed to the corner, Vasquez unloaded with a hot that sent Marquez sprawling to the canvas. Marquez looked temporarily dazed but quickly regained his composure to finish the round strongly.

The two warriors fought extremely close rounds during the middle of the fight. Neither boxer was able to sustain a serious advantage over the other. Marquez landed the majority of the punches, but Vasquez connected with the more powerful ones.

When asked for his comments about the fight, Vasquez said, “It was a war. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose, but I will come back and regain the belt Rafael took away from me.”

Surprisingly, the arena was only about half-full for the battle that had all the makings of being a fight of the year candidate even before the first bell. The bout turned out to be a great encounter, and hopefully, the rematch will be as well.

In the semi main-event:

Vic Darchinyan continued his impressive unbeaten streak with a twelfth round TKO victory over Victor Burgos. The bout was for Darchinyan’s IBF and IBO Flyweight titles. Darchinyan improves his record to 28-0 (22 Kos) while Burgos falls to 39-15-3 (23 Kos).The time of the stoppage was 1:27 of the final round.

Darchinyan’s methodical attack confused Burgos and kept Burgos off-balance most of the fight. Burgos took a knee midway through the second after some devastating shots from the more powerful Darchinyan. From there on through sixth round, Burgess backed off while Darchinyan closed in to unleash more vicious body shots with his left hand.

Most of the bout continued in the same fashion until the seventh round. At that point, there was a temporary change of momentum when Burgos caught Darchinyan with a solid right hand that backed the champion into the ropes. Unfortunately for the challenger, the bell rang a few moments later, and Darchinyan received time to recuperate.

From the eighth round on, the fight went back to the same format as the earlier rounds. Darchinyan walked down Burgos while connecting with multiple power shots. Finally, in the final frame, an obviously tired Burgos could barely stay on his feet when the referee stepped in to end the fight.

At the conclusion of the fight, scary moment occurred when Burgos dropped to the canvas in the center of the ring. Burgos received immediate medical attention. Fortunately, all vital signs were good, and the problem was mainly due to the accumulation of power shots and overall exhaustion. Medical personnel rook Burgos to Harper UCLA Medical for precautionary measures.