There was no way Vargas could win against Bradley as he was outpointed from the opening round, and his only chance was to win by knockout in the final round.
Vargas did his best to score a knockout in the 12th round and he almost did, but referee Russell stopped Vargas from finishing Bradley with about 10 seconds left in the fight. It turned out Russell thought the bout was over and stopped the fight.
Russell claimed he heard the sound of the bell to end the last round. He admitted later that he made a mistake.
Except for the second and 12th round, Bradley won all rounds as tallied by Fytehype in its round-by-round coverage of the fight as shown here.
It appears Vargas lost the opportunity to pursue Bradley to follow-up on his killer punch that wobbled Bradley in the closing seconds of the last round.
In boxing, anyone can win the fight, even if his opponent is way ahead on points — provided he scores a knockout before the end of the final bell.
In the Bradley fight, Vargas was clearly deprived of what could have been a won fight via knockout, even with just about seven seconds left to the final bell.
In fairness to Bradley, he offered Vargas a rematch, acknowledging that he was dazed but was conscious of what he was doing to defend himself.
“Why not? We can do a rematch,” Bradley said after the fight. “I don’t have a problem with that. Absolutely, I’ll give him a rematch no problem. I could have continued on. I’ve survived Provodnikov. I didn’t go anywhere, baby. I was still there. I was still alive. I didn’t go down. Look at how strong my legs are. I knew exactly what I was doing. I got lazy and he timed me with a perfectly thrown overhand right.”
Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters, can set up a rematch easily but no one knows for sure if the second fight will still draw the same crowd.
The only valid reason for Arum to stage a rematch is to correct the mistake that the referee made when he stopped the fight prematurely. If that is the only yardstick, then Vargas deserves immediate rematch.
Still, Arum would be risking Vargas’s career if he loses to Bradley for the second time. Vargas is the current WBA light welterweight champion and he can return to the ring on his next fight not as a challenger, but as a defending champion.
