by Cliff Rold

It looked like he’d been solved.

Jessie Vargas was stunned and taking fire in the fourth round. As the round ended, Sadam Ali was fired up with momentum on his side.

Ali didn’t win another round.

In the best performance of his career, a fighter whose luck in decisions left many fans frustrated, showed a new layer of substance. Jessie Vargas might not ever be the best welterweight in the world but Saturday he showed the ability to adjust and the fire to finish.

It opens a whole bunch of interesting possibilities.    

Let’s go the report card.

Grades

Pre-Fight: Speed – Ali B; Vargas B/Post: Same

Pre-Fight: Power – Ali B; Vargas B-/Post: B; B

Pre-Fight: Defense – Ali B+; Vargas B-/Post: B-; B

Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Ali B+; Vargas B+/Post: B; A

One of Ali’s strengths has been his head movement. Vargas answered it early by feinting and catching him with hard lead lefts to the head early on. It bruised up the right eye of Ali and set the stage for what was to come.

After the fourth, Vargas rebounded from Ali’s best assault of the night by taking advantage of the swelling eye. His jab opened up the most basic of all combinations: the ol’ 1-2. He landed it again…and again…and again. It was textbook stuff.

It worked like a charm.

Ali didn’t go quietly but, unlike Vargas, he never found the next dimension he needed in the fight. He was all out of adjustments after the fourth. It might be a place to commend the value of experience. Vargas was Ali’s toughest test to date. Ali was not Vargas’s. Vargas had much to draw on in an entertaining firefight. Ali will now have Vargas to learn from.

Then he was all sorts of out of it, period. There were some who thought the stoppage a hair too quick. It wasn’t. Ali was done when he went down in the eighth. He stumbled to the wrong side of the ring before finding his corner and his legs never recovered. In his corner after the finish in the ninth, his legs were still jelly.

Some nights, it gets beaten out of you. Vargas laid a hell of a beating. Now he gets to cash in. Chatter after the fight focused on the possibility of a rematch with Tim Bradley. Vargas lost wide to Bradley last year but a memorable finish left Vargas asking for more. If Bradley upsets Manny Pacquiao, or if he doesn’t, the rematch has some mustard now.

Monday on Twitter, Steve Kim (of this site and UCN Live) brought up the possibility of a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez hasn’t fought in almost two years but has said he wants one more bite at the apple of a fifth divisional title.

Now 42, he might still be the favorite over Vargas. Vargas couldn’t face anyone right now with more name to build on. It’s an intriguing possibility.

Report Card and Staff Picks 2016: 8-5

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com