Adrien Broner vs. Jessie Vargas – Results

By Allan Fox: Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs) rallied late to salvage a controversial 12 round majority draw against former 2 division world champion Jessie Vargas (28-2-2, 10 KOs) on Saturday night in their catch-weight fight at 144 pounds on Showtime Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

(Photo credit: Janer Bigio/Mayweather Promotions)

The judges scored the fight 115-113 for Broner, 114-114, 114-114. Boxing News 24 scored it 117-111 for Vargas. He was the better fighter throughout and appeared to outwork the 28-year-old Broner. However, down the stretch, Vargas faded a little, and this enabled Broner to get back into the fight to earn a draw on the judges’ scorecards.

This can’t be a positive for Broner though, as he struggled badly against arguably the 10th best welterweight in the division in Vargas. Broner does not have the work rate or the punching power to beat the best welterweights, and tonight’s results proved that.

Things looked bleak for Broner going into the 8th round. Vargas had fought well enough to be up 7 rounds to 1 on Boxing News 24’s card. Broner had a good round in the 9th. He landed a tremendous uppercut and connected with some good shots to hurt Vargas. Broner looked like he woke up finally and realized that he was in a fight.

In round 10, Broner walked Vargas down and landed some hard-right hands. Vargas responded with soe body shots that made it close.

Rounds 11 and 12 were close enough to go Vargas’ weay. He was landing a lot of punches, but the judges might have been swayed with the sense of urgency that Broner was showing. He looked like he wanted it more in the last two rounds of the fight.

Overall, it was a close fight between two evenly matched fighters in Broner and Vargas. A rematch would be in order if Broner doesn’t mind doing a repeat. He’s the more popular fighter of the two. Amir Khan said earlier tonight after his 1st round knockout win over Phil Lo Greco that he wanted to fight the winner of the Broner vs. Vargas fight. Perhaps Broner can get a fight against Khan next rather than doing a do over against Vargas.

Vargas is a decent welterweight, but he’s well belong guys like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Terence Crawford, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Even Amir Khan might have too much for Vargas. Broner is a light welterweight, so he does have a slight excuse for not being able to beat Vargas. The way Broner looked tonight, he would have been in a lot of trouble had he been inside the ring with the top guys at 140 like Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez.

Broner doesn’t have the work rate or the power to beat those guys. Showtime is still willing to televise Broner’s fights even though he fails each time he steps up against the best. Sooner or later, they’re going to give up on Broner, who is little more than a gatekeeper type of fighter at this point in his career. Broner had his day in winning 4 division world titles against less than the best opposition, but now that there aren’t any vulnerable champions for Broner to beat, he’s being exposed repeatedly by different fighters.