Trinidad stops Vargas in final round

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

Trinidad also was knocked down in the fourth round and was penalized two points for low blows while Vargas was penalized one point for low blows in a fight that had a sellout crowd at Mandalay Bay Event Center roaring.

Trinidad retained the WBA 154-pound title and won the IBF championship.

After being knocked down in the fourth round, Trinidad dominated the rest of the fight, although the younger Vargas fought back gamely. He just couldn't handle Trinidad's punishing left jabs and sharp left hooks and rights to the head.

Trinidad knocked Vargas down with a right hand and left hook to the head 29 seconds into the final round. Vargas got up quickly, then went down from another left hook. Again he got up quickly, but with 1:28 left in the round, Trinidad knocked Vargas down with a right to the head and referee Jay Nady stopped the fight. The time was 1:33.

It looked as if the 27-year-old Trinidad would end the fight in the first round. Vargas came storming out to meet Trinidad and was dropped with a left hook with the round only 23 seconds old. Twenty-two seconds later, another hook put Vargas down.

Trinidad did not, however, press the attack and Vargas lasted the round. It was the first knockdowns of Vargas' career.

For Trinidad, it was the eighth time he has gotten up to win. The former IBF-WBC welterweight champion from Puerto Rico scored his 32nd knockout in boosting his record to 39-0.

Vargas, of Oxnard, Calif., who will be 23 on Thursday, had said that if he knocked Trinidad down, it would be all over. But the only thing the knockdown seemed to do to Trinidad was make him more determined.

Trinidad landed a low blow in the third round and Nady gave Vargas a 75 seconds to recover, but he did not penalize Trinidad.

Nady, however, took a point from Trinidad in the fourth round for a low blow and gave Vargas about a minute to recover. He also penalized Trinidad a point for a low blow in the seventh round.

In the 10th round, it was Vargas' turn to be penalized a point.

The ninth round was a tremendous round with both fighters being credited with landing 32 punches, although Trinidad seemed to land the harder blows.

In the final three rounds, Trinidad outlanded the tiring Vargas 63-36. At the end of the fight, Trinidad's right eye was swollen from being thumbed in the fourth round, while Vargas was badly marked about both eyes.

All three judges had Trinidad leading after 11 rounds. Duane Ford of Nevada had it 103-100, Stanley Christodoulou had it 104-100 and Glen Hamada had it 104-99.

The AP favored Trinidad 105-98.

"That was my toughest fight," Trinidad said. "He hit me with a good left hook and he hurt me a little, but I was in great condition and I'm a great champion and I came back.

"I was worried and I was afraid it would come to a disqualification," Trinidad said of the low-blow penalty."

Vargas left the ring without being interviewed.

It was another Olympian effort for Trinidad, as Vargas became the fourth U.S. Olympic boxer to lose to the Puerto Rican. He also has beaten gold medal winners Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya and David Reid. Vargas got to the second round in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

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