By: Sean Crose
26-0 two-weight world champion Rey Vargas takes on O’Shaquie Foster 19-2 for the WBC super featherweight title Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The scheduled 12th round match is the main event of the Showtime broadcast card. However, the night opened with Lenier Pero 8-0 battling heavyweight Viktor Faust 11-0 in the scheduled 10th round.
Pero grounded his body well for the first time. Faust tosses and lands some heavy skins in the second. Pero continued to be physically active in the third round, although Faust was the more active of the two. A Faust left kick tripped Pero in the final seconds of the round. By the fourth round, it was clear that Pero was the more skilled fighter, while Faust was the stronger one.
Another Pero rocked the hard fruit in the fifth round. Pero could throw and land more in the sixth round. However, it still might not be enough to do the rotation. It was clear that in the seventh round, Pero was simply fighting in a style that was too sluggish for Faust. The Miami-based fighter, the Cuban way, will have to change things up if he wants to win the match.
And changed everything Pero did, hitting Faust so hard in the eighth round that the Ukrainian fell out, causing the referee to stop the match.
This was followed by a scheduled ten-round welterweight bout between the famous boxer, 26-2, Mario Barrios, and 14-2-1 Joavine Santiago. The first round saw Santiago trying to get inside against his considerably larger foe. However, Barrios continued to pressure himself. The boxers were still quite patient in the second round, not showing any eagerness to regularly hit.
The third part proved to be an exciting, fast-paced business, with each man having his moments. Things turned tense in the fourth inning, although Santiago’s effective aggression may have helped the chapter in his favor. Santiago continued to try to get inside in the fifth inning. Barrios began rocking his men in the sixth inning. Santiago’s corner threatened to stop the game midway through.
Santiago has guts, but little else in season seven. A body shot brought Santiago’s game down in the eighth inning. He passed the count, but then Santiago’s corner wisely stopped the game shortly after.
It’s time for the main event.
Both Vargas and Foster launched quick jabs in the first. Vargas went down early in the second inning, but it was said to miss. Foster can deliver quick punches throughout the round. The third argued that Foster was simply too polished for his man. Vargas also suffered a cut above his left eye. The fourth inning was closer than the previous rounds, but overall Foster still made better shots.
However, the fifth inning was over – again – Foster’s slick style may have overtaken it. Season six essentially tells the story of the fight up to that point: Foster can land cleanly on Vargas, but Foster’s style won’t allow Vargas to land cleanly on Foster. Not much difference in the seventh inning compared to the previous six. Vargas simply couldn’t land well against his opponent.
Foster had complete mental control in the fight in the eighth round. Vargas was clearly on his way to his first defeat if he couldn’t make it. Foster’s input seems to drop in ninth place. And indeed, Vargas seems to be doing better. Has he done enough? Foster continued to make better shots in the tenth inning. The Texan then relentlessly pursued Vargas in the 11th round, although admittedly the round was a back-and-forth.
The twelfth and final round see more of the same thing as Foster tries to assert himself while Vargas tries to find his nasty card. Foster even looked as if he could attempt to finish off Vargas from a distance in the last minute of the match. Vargas certainly didn’t fall, but that night belonged to Foster, who won the WBC belt with scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 119-109.
