THE WBA light-welterweight title fight between Jessie Vargas and Antonio DeMarco began quietly. Vargas, the Las Vegas based champion who began training with Roy Jones for this fight, held out his lead left and, as the first half of the fight wore on, began to grind his way on to the front foot. He was getting on top of DeMarco.

But the Mexican, trained by Freddie Roach, burst into action in the seventh round. He cracked Vargas with southpaw lefts and his lead hook, rocking him at times. But Jessie restored his composure in the last two rounds with hard counter-punches, winning unanimously with Levi Martinez, Stanley Christodoulou and Pinit Prayasab all scoring 116-112 in his favour.

“He shook me up once,” DeMarco said afterwards. “But I know I hurt him several times.”

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