Roberto Vasquez vs. Jose Garcia Bernal

Roberto Vasquez 108 lbs beat Jose Garcia Bernal 108 lbs by TKO at 2:14 in round 11 of 12

• Date: 2004-04-16
• Location: Figali Convention Center, Fort Amador, Panama
• Referee: Julio Cesar Alvarado
• Judge: Eliecer Perez
• Judge: Emma De Urrunaga
• Judge: Ricardo Cerezo

The spider man outlasts a tough opponent

by Eric Jackson

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With the balkanization of professional boxing rankings among four international organizations, it’s hard to say who’s the real champ and sometimes even to know who’s a contender. But now everybody knows that Panamanian light flyweight Roberto “La Araña” Vásquez is a contender.

On April 16 Vásquez went to the Figali Convention Center to face Colombia’s José García Bernal and came away as the unified WBA, WBO and WBC Latin American champion in his division. Now 15-1 with 13 knockouts, Vásquez just needs to travel outside of Panama to beat one or two guys who are ranked higher than he is to merit what every prizefighter seeks, a shot at a title.

However, it was never so simple as that. It rarely is in boxing --- even for an easy first-round knockout victory an athlete will have gone through months of grueling preparation. And this was not yet another facile mismatch for the guy in the spider robe and tipico hat --- this time Vásquez had a serious opponent, one with a 25-5-1 record and 17 KOs.

By my scoring, Vásquez lost the first round, but not by much. Over that and the next eight rounds, I had the Panamanian taking a couple of rounds and the Colombian taking a couple, but mostly the two fighters going back to their corners drawn.

None of these were these little dance around and jab type draws. No, we had a little toe-to-toe stand-up trading of licks, and a lot of alternating furious combinations landed. The third and fifth round, both of which I scored as ties, were as thrilling as boxing gets.

At the end of nine it seemed to me that all was even after Bernal took the round. The Colombian had shown very quick hands, very nimble footwork and very little vulnerability to those punches that the Panamanian was able to land.

So was that when discussion in the Vásquez corner got to the point of noting that it would be necessary to go for a knockout, as a victory on points was by no means assured?

Whatever was said, Vásquez came out and pounded Bernal in the tenth asalto. As in knocking the Colombian to the canvas twice in that round, with only the bell saving Bernal. It looked as if Vásquez came up with a second wind, or as if Bernal reached the limit of his endurance.

So what did Bernal’s manager tell him between the 10th and 11th rounds? By then the Colombian was surely not about to win on points, but maybe he was just hearing a ringing sensation rather than any words of counsel.

In any case, Vasquez resumed his assault in the eleventh and Bernal barely held on for two minutes, until at 2:14 the spider man put his opponent on the canvas for a third time and the referee stopped the fight. It was a definitive ending to a brilliant fight between well matched professionals, just what the fans had paid to see.

This was, of course, just the main event after seven warm-up bouts, some of them excellent as well.

It started with Colon’s Rossano Lawrence taking out Armando Jiménez in a first-round knockout. Then Chiriqui's Williams González --- a good athlete even if he isn’t the hope of the white race as his promoters stupidly allege --- survived a third-round knockdown and took a controversial unanimous decision in his six-round bout against José Luis Yañez.

After that Alexander Murillo and Javier Córdoba mixed it up for four rounds, with the decision going to the latter, then Jorge Samudio and Carlos Loaiza mixed it up for six rounds, with Samudio taking the decision largely on the strength of a fourth-round knockdown in an otherwise even fight.

So did some of the fans come to see the son of a great legend on his way to the top? If that’s the ultimate destination for Roberto Durán Jr. they saw a detour. Durán, who came into the bout undefeated at 5-0, was matched with an unknown from the Darien, Nicasio Sánchez, also undefeated at 1-0-1. It was a wild battle between young fighters, and a strong Durán finish made it seem as if the fight had ended in a knockout in the final round. Ah, but a bell rang, and despite Durán’s strong finish the judges gave the split decision to Sánchez.

The next bout, wherein Reynaldo Frutos took on Edwin Díaz, might as well have been an ad for the boxing reform that Muhammad Ali and John McCain have been promoted and the likes of Don King and the Vegas casino owners have so far blocked. The Greatest and the senator want to require, among other things, that any fighter who takes a serious beating in the ring will routinely be checked out with a CAT scan. (Had this been done after Pedro Alcázar’s last fight, he’d be with us today.) Díaz came out swinging and knocked Frutos down in the first round, then knocked him cold in the second. When, several minutes later, Frutos was able to get up, he was clearly woozy and disoriented. Viewed from a labor perspective, if he wasn’t taken to a hospital for tests and observation it amounted to intolerable working conditions. Viewed from a shyster’s point of view, if the ringside doctor didn’t order this it amounted to grounds for a malpractice suit. This fan simply hopes that Frutos, a good and valiant fighter even though he’s not headed for the top, will not live the rest of his life with brain damage from this beating.

The night’s penultimate fight, between super-featherweights Joel Cerrud and Fabián Salazar, started out with a wild brawl in the negative sense in the first round. There were too many punches too far off the mark, and too much stumbling, but I gave Salazar the round. Then Cerrud took command, knocking Salazar down in the second and out in the third. Now 9-2-1 with seven knockouts, Cerrud owns the WBO’s regional belt for his category.