Be careful what you ask for, sometimes it arrives unexpectedly in the form of a gift-wrapped 10-ounce blood red Cleto Reyes boxing glove.
Faster hands and a trip hammer left hook proved to be the difference as Shane Mosley scored a one-sided 6th round TKO in his rematch with former junior middleweight king Fernando "Ferocious" Vargas.
Just last February, Mosley registered a brutal 10th round TKO over Vargas, after rocketing enough right hands off his skull to render his left eye the size of an overripe Crenshaw melon. Vargas complained the damage was caused by headbutts and maneuvered for a rematch, however, this time out he fell victim to a punch he never saw coming.
Once again forced to make weight to tip the Toledo's at 154-pounds, the melted down Vargas fought the entire bout as if he were throwing punches underwater. The 34-year-old former lightweight, welterweight and junior middleweight king Mosley responded by ripping Vargas with wicked shots from the opening bell and dominating the contest over the first five rounds.
In the 6th, Mosley measured and then floored Vargas with a searing counter left hook to the jaw. The star of the La Colonia Gym in Oxnard, California, hit the deck with such force that he actually bounced and got some air before gravity interceded in the normal fashion. Flat on his back Vargas struggled and then stumbled to rise before staggering to his feet at the count of seven.
Back on his heels, Vargas was easy prey as Mosley ripped into the wounded fighter with another five-shot volley of left hooks and chopping right hands to the head. With Vargas still upright but in essence out on his feet, referee Kenny Bayless wisely called a halt to the proceedings and awarded Mosley at TKO victory at 2:38 of the sixth round.
"When Oscar [De La Hoya] fought Vargas, he threw a perfect left hook against him," Mosley confided. "When I was bouncing around, I saw an opportunity to do the same thing. I think Fernando was weaker in this fight. He looked like he was going to break down. I knew if I hit him with body shots, he would break down even more."
Vargas earned $3.4 million dollars for the rematch and once again struggled with his weight.
"I take nothing away from his performance. I was putting pressure on him," Vargas said after the loss. "I started putting my punches together and he caught me with a good shot and that was it."
For his part Mosley pulled down $3 million dollars plus a percentage of the buys for the pay-per-view contest. Despite earlier losses to Vernon Forest and Winky Wright, Mosley again is at the top of the sport and leads the possible short list of opponents in a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
