Well for the first 4 rounds of the Mikey Garcia vs. Jesse Vargas fight this past Saturday night, Garcia was looking as if he did not belong in the 147-pound weight division. Vargas was using a good jab to Garcia’s body, straight shots, and blistering hooks that kept Garcia guessing. Vargas was boxing beautifully.
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Everything changed, however, from the 5th round on in this fight. In the 5th round, Vargas continued to move forward behind the jab and landed beautifully to Garcia’s body and head. Little that Vargas knew Garcia was collecting data for the first 4 rounds of this fight and changed the game on him.
Garcia stopped boxing and stepped up his aggression. As round 5 continued, Garcia’s aggression and counterpunching paid off as he caught Vargas with a huge right hand that sent Vargas staggering across the ring.
Garcia walked down Vargas and landed another solid right hand that sent Vargas to the canvas.
That series of events in round 5 changed the fight forever. Vargas got up from the knockdown, but he was never back in the fight. Garcia almost had Vargas stopped in the 7th round but, Vargas somehow someway survived. Garcia stepped up his boxing game tremendously and did not look back. Uppercuts, counterpunches, power shots, you name it, Garcia was catching Vargas with it.
Garcia’s biggest weapon in the late rounds was a vicious right hand that he could not miss on Vargas. Vargas showed heart in the late rounds, but Garcia just cruised in this fight after the knockdown in the 5th round.
Garcia was awarded the 12th round unanimous decision victory, thus, capturing the vacant WBC Diamond welterweight title.
Conclusion
Mikey Garcia used effective aggression as opposed to his usual superior boxing skills to overwhelm Vargas. In the early rounds, it was Vargas who was beating Garcia to the punch which opened the door for Garcia to change his game plan. The jury is still out on whether or not Garcia belongs in the welterweight division or not.
Again, Vargas made Garcia change his game plan which worked against a gamed Vargas. Can Garcia, however, do the same thing against some of the top welterweights in the division, let alone, can he afford to?
Who would you like to see Garcia fight next?
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