Last Saturday in Corpus Christi, former two-time junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas returned to the ring in a big way. Coming off a fifteen-month layoff, the ex-champion earned a well-fought decision over the always-gritty Raymond Joval. Although I felt that Vargas was shot as a fighter and 160-pounds would be too much weight for him to carry, sure enough he made me eat my words. Under the tutelage of Danny Smith, Vargas was fighting in the “pocket.” He was also tucking his chin when he threw a jab. Yes, you read correctly, a jab. At the end of the fight Vargas was quoted as saying that, “I didn’t even know I had a jab.” As impressive as he looked, let’s remember that he was in there against Raymond Joval, although he is never easy but lacks steam on his punches. This was very evident throughout the fight. How would Fernando fare against the big boys at 160? You know the Tito’s, the B-Hop’s, the Jermain Taylor’s and just recently the Winky Wright’s of the world of boxing.

He may have proved me wrong that he isn’t finished as a fighter, but he definitely can’t stay at middleweight. Fernando didn’t have enough power in punches to prevent Joval from being the aggressor in the fight. Another observation I made was that at certain times during the fight, Vargas looked apprehensive. When he hurt Raymond with a left hook in the second round, Vargas was reluctant to jump on him. The old Fernando Vargas would have finished him right then and there.

Fernando Vargas matches up better against the junior middleweights. A fight with Travis Simms or Ricardo Mayorga is more evenly matched as opposed to the mismatches he would find at 160. He is too small for Bernard or Taylor. I call it how I see it, and I tell it how it is. I was way off on my prediction. His comeback fight answered the question that many were asking: “Is he shot as a fighter?” As we all saw last Saturday, not yet. He proved the skeptics wrong.

Congratulations Fernando, considering the long layoff and fighting at a higher weight, I was very impressed.

Edwin Gonzalez can be reached at prpapa427@aol.com

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