Fernando Vargas vs Ronald Wright

Fernando Vargas retained his IBF world super welterweight championship by a majority decision over Ronald “Winky” Wright after twelve rounds at Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City, Oregon, on Saturday, December 4, 1999. The champion was taken the distance for the first time in eighteen professional contests. Wright’s sustained pressure and accurate southpaw punching made this his most demanding defence, while Vargas’s heavier counters and determined finish helped secure a verdict which divided observers. Both weighed 154 pounds, and Joe Cortez refereed.

Vargas, five days short of his twenty second birthday, had stopped all seventeen previous opponents. He had won the championship from Luis Ramon Campas almost a year earlier and defended it against Howard Clarke and Raul Marquez. Wright, 28, entered with 39 wins and two defeats and had previously held the WBO championship. He was the mandatory challenger for this defence, the principal contest on the Main Events promotion billed as “Commotion at the Ocean.” HBO televised the show on Boxing After Dark, with Diego Corrales’s defence against John Brown also featured.

Wright departed from expectations that he would rely chiefly on movement. He stood close enough to initiate exchanges, using a sharp right jab and following with his left. Vargas answered with forceful counters to the ribs and head, taking the opening round on every official card. Wright increased his activity in the second and added the right hook, keeping his gloves high to blunt the champion’s replies. The third continued at a demanding pace, with neither conceding much ground. Vargas landed the heavier punches, but Wright repeatedly answered and often completed the exchanges.

Vargas concentrated on the body in the fourth, finding room for hooks and uppercuts against an opponent willing to remain within reach. Wright’s more consistent work became increasingly important from the fifth. His jab interrupted Vargas’s attempts to set himself, and he followed when the champion moved away. Vargas continued producing effective bursts, particularly with the left hook, but had difficulty maintaining his attacks for the full round. Wright’s steady pursuit gave him sustained success through the middle stages, and in the ninth he knocked out Vargas’s mouthpiece before following with another jab.

The tenth brought a substantial response from Vargas. He forced Wright backwards and drove punches to the body and head, finishing strongly while the challenger covered up. Wright recovered his effectiveness in the eleventh, using movement and accurate punches to prevent Vargas from continuing the same attack. Both men showed swelling around the eyes. Vargas pressed again in the twelfth, landing a right to the head and a left downstairs. A slip briefly interrupted his advance, but he resumed his attack. Wright raised his arms before the final bell, evidently confident that his earlier work had secured the contest.

Debra Barnes scored 116-112 and Jim Howard 115-113 for Vargas, while Dave Hess returned 114-114. All three officials awarded Vargas the last round. HBO’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman favoured Wright 115-113. CompuBox credited Vargas with landing 266 of 770 punches and Wright with 229 of 672. Within those totals, Vargas landed 244 power punches to Wright’s 131, reflecting the difference between the champion’s harder combinations and the challenger’s greater reliance on his jab.

Wright left convinced that he had done enough to win. His defence, balance and sustained activity had prevented Vargas from imposing the sort of contest which had produced seventeen successive stoppages. Vargas nevertheless answered the challenger’s strongest passages with damaging work of his own and finished with urgency when the result remained uncertain. He advanced to eighteen victories without defeat, while Wright suffered his third loss. The championship remained with Vargas, but the narrow decision reflected a closely contested fight rather than an unchallenged defence.

I had Wright edging this. Vargas’s stoppage wins over Campas, and Marquez had made him a young fighter worth watching, but Winky gave him a problem that power alone couldn’t solve. He stepped forward behind that southpaw jab, kept his gloves tight and answered Fernando’s bursts with steady work. What impressed me was his balance: he could defend without surrendering punching distance. Vargas deserves credit for the body shots and his response in the tenth, when he forced Wright to cover up. I won’t call it a robbery, but the challenger’s consistency carried it for me. Winky celebrating before the final bell was poor judgment; it doesn’t wipe out the rounds he’d already earned.