What did Fernando Vargas do wrong in the Felix Trinidad fight?

[big_james10]

From a technical standpoint, what caused Vargas to lose in the fashion that he did?

What went wrong for the then 22-year-old 154 lb champion?

Post, discuss, and elaborate.

What went wrong is that Vargas showed up for the fight. Vargas was never that good to begin with. He was heavily hyped, but was never as good as advertised. He was knocked out by the three best opponents he faced -- Trinidad, De La Hoya and Mosley -- all of whom began their careers at lower weight classes. That pretty much says it all.

The second problem with Vargas was that he did not receive good training. He insisted on sticking with the same trainer that he began with in the amateurs. His sense of loyalty was great, but his trainer's skills were limited and that showed up in Vargas' fights. He should have switched to a better quality trainer early in his career -- before he fought Trinidad. If he had, he may have still lost to the guys mentioned above, but he may have at least been more competitive in those fights.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

What went wrong is that Vargas showed up for the fight. Vargas was never that good to begin with. He was heavily hyped, but was never as good as advertised. He was knocked out by the three best opponents he faced -- Trinidad, De La Hoya and Mosley -- all of whom began their careers at lower weight classes. That pretty much says it all.

The second problem with Vargas was that he did not receive good training. He insisted on sticking with the same trainer that he began with in the amateurs. His sense of loyalty was great, but his trainer's skills were limited and that showed up in Vargas' fights. He should have switched to a better quality trainer early in his career -- before he fought Trinidad. If he had, he may have still lost to the guys mentioned above, but he may have at least been more competitive in those fights.

Vargas was a young, upcoming fighter that was thrown in against a very good fighter in Trinidad too soon. If you actually watch the fight, Vargas was outboxing Trinidad up until the later rounds.

Second, what makes you think he wasn't trained well? Do you even know who trained him? It was Big G, Robert Garcias dad who studied the sport in Cuba, Mexico and developed his own style which made Fernando Vargas,Robert Garcia, and now Mikey Garcia world champs.....lol

His training was excellent, he just met up with a better fighter at an age where he was put in too early. Also, there's nothing wrong with being beaten by DLH, Trinidad and Mosley, those are HOF fighters.

Vargas had a great career, he beat some big time fighters and was a monster in his prime. What derailed him was not being focused in the gym, gaining weight and problems outside the ring.

[soul_survivor]

From a technical standpoint, what caused Vargas to lose in the fashion that he did?

What went wrong for the then 22-year-old 154 lb champion?

Post, discuss, and elaborate.

technically vargas wasn't ready, he didnt jab as much as he should of and he didnt have the best punch variety but all in all, tito was just too good for him. no version of vargas beats tito

[BHopp]

Leaky defense, also those low blows certainly didn't help his cause

[Bitter End]

Vargas could have really won IMO

The more and more I think about it, I realize it was Vargas' fight to win, not lose.

However... Here are some factors that contributed to his demise...

• Not seasoned, wily, experienced enough; he was a 22-year-old.

• Trinidad was an undefeated monster at the time. (But not unbeatable!)

• Vargas didn't jab, move, or keep his right hand up enough. He tried to be a tough guy puncher. For what?! Why the **** are you gonna try to be a brawler/puncher WHEN YOU HAVE GREAT BOXING SKILLS?!

• On top of that, the head movement was there (it was beautiful) but the foot movement was not there; Vargas was more flat footed than Trinidad, sadly.

• Nando had all the tools to beat Trinidad -- and maybe even stop him -- but he had a bad gameplan. He didn't respect Trinidad until he got caught. Like the other poster said, he should have been more cautious.

• Think about it, Vargas IMO has more power than Bernard Hopkins. (Not saying that B-Hop is bad or anything. Just saying what I think.) If Vargas set traps intelligently -- like Bernard -- he could have really tattooed Tito. But it all begins with the jab, footwork, and keeping your hands up. That was the difference between Hopkins and Vargas. What you do is throw combinations off the back foot. Vargas has the ability to do that! Why he brawled is beyond me.

• Other factors that contributed to his demise was Tito's size, reach, power, speed, and slightly better athleticism.

Vargas was a good boxer with a chance to be an ATG jr. middleweight.

[ßringer]

Vargas couldn't have done anything to win that fight that night. Trinidad was too strong, too experienced, and too skilled. Truthfully, Vargas shouldn't have been in the ring with him to begin with. Fernando's manager failed him by moving him along way too quickly.

Props to Vargas for being willing to take those risks so early in his career though.

[Big_L]

What went wrong is that Vargas showed up for the fight. Vargas was never that good to begin with. He was heavily hyped, but was never as good as advertised. He was knocked out by the three best opponents he faced -- Trinidad, De La Hoya and Mosley -- all of whom began their careers at lower weight classes. That pretty much says it all.

The second problem with Vargas was that he did not receive good training. He insisted on sticking with the same trainer that he began with in the amateurs. His sense of loyalty was great, but his trainer's skills were limited and that showed up in Vargas' fights. He should have switched to a better quality trainer early in his career -- before he fought Trinidad. If he had, he may have still lost to the guys mentioned above, but he may have at least been more competitive in those fights.

vargas was shot after tito. so it's not like dlh and mosley beat him at his best. he was very competitive with both anyway (first mosley fight, not the second).

Garcia was a fine trainer. He also had Roger Bloodworth in his corner. Lou Duva was with him early in his career.

[Big_L]

The more and more I think about it, I realize it was Vargas' fight to win, not lose.

However... Here are some factors that contributed to his demise...

• Not seasoned, wily, experienced enough; he was a 22-year-old.

• Trinidad was an undefeated monster at the time. (But not unbeatable!)

• Vargas didn't jab, move, or keep his right hand up enough. He tried to be a tough guy puncher. For what?! Why the **** are you gonna try to be a brawler/puncher WHEN YOU HAVE GREAT BOXING SKILLS?!

• On top of that, the head movement was there (it was beautiful) but the foot movement was not there; Vargas was more flat footed than Trinidad, sadly.

• Nando had all the tools to beat Trinidad -- and maybe even stop him -- but he had a bad gameplan. He didn't respect Trinidad until he got caught. Like the other poster said, he should have been more cautious.

• Think about it, Vargas IMO has more power than Bernard Hopkins. (Not saying that B-Hop is bad or anything. Just saying what I think.) If Vargas set traps intelligently -- like Bernard -- he could have really tattooed Tito. But it all begins with the jab, footwork, and keeping your hands up. That was the difference between Hopkins and Vargas. What you do is throw combinations off the back foot. Vargas has the ability to do that! Why he brawled is beyond me.

• Other factors that contributed to his demise was Tito's size, reach, power, speed, and slightly better athleticism.

Vargas was a good boxer with a chance to be an ATG jr. middleweight.

If I remember correctly, Vargas was believed that Trinidad could not fight backing up. That is why he attacked from the start. If he would have taken the DLH/Hopkins approach he might have pulled it off.

His head movement in that fight was pretty awesome. He made Tito miss a lot of shots even while hurt.

[Bitter End]

Vargas said it best himself and its exactly what happened. He said he was the better boxer and his plan was to outbox him but once he got dropped, he felt like he was behind and had to fight with him. Even when he came back even in the fight, he said he still felt like he was behind and that he shouldve went back to boxing after that. I think he couldve won if he didnt let his ego get to him and go toe to toe

I agree. Vargas had the tools.

Got a source on "Vargas said it best himself"? Thanks.

[Basco]

He gave it an honest run but I think he was surprised by Tito's power like a lot of other boxers. How can that skinny guy hit that hard? The reality sets in when you find yourself on the ground. I think Tito carried that psychological advantage(along with his power obviously) throughout his career. People never expected him to hit as hard as he did and then.........the "oh snap moment". I think a lot of fighter he fought were shocked and were never able to overcome that mental wall.

Just my humble opinion