Fernando Vargas vs Ike Quartey Underrated Fight.

[ICB]

This fight is overlooked because it happened in the same year as Morales-Barrera I, Trinidad-Vargas, and Mosley-DLH I. Great fight, the most impressive performance of Vargas' career.

One thing i never understood though is why Quartey retired for 5 years after the Vargas fight ??

Quartey was a very successful businessman outside of the ring, so he didn't need the constant paychecks. He was also a very cocky and stubborn guy, so he wasn't going to fight unless it was a big money fight. After getting the bad decision against Oscar and losing to Vargas, there were no real big money fights for him.

Quartey really had a tough luck career. He got a draw against Lopez in a fight that most people thought he won. He signed up to fight Whitaker in a big money fight in '98 that got cancelled when Whitaker got arrested for drugs. Then he loses the controversial decision to Oscar (I thought Quartey clearly won), then loses the tough fight to Vargas. 5 years later comes back and gets robbed against Forrest.

I guess your right i forgot about the other great fights of 2000, i also didn't know about Quartey being successful businessman. As for ODLH vs Quartey i don't know what your exact scoring was but i personally had Quartey 3 points ahead after 11th round, and at the end of the fight i had Quartey winning by 1 point. I thought it was a close fight but i thought the rounds were quite easy to score IMO.

I would have loved to have seen Quartey vs Whitaker, as you know Whitaker is one of my favorites. But i don't know if i would have liked to have seen the faded 98 version of Whitaker vs prime Quartey if im honest. I have Lopez vs Quartey and i thought Quartey clearly won majority of the first 9 rounds. Lopez come on strong in later rounds but it wasn't enough to make up for the big lead Quartey had.