Nick Ball Doubtful of Rey Vargas Taking Him Up on a Rematch
In the sport of boxing, the term “a tale of two halves” is frequently thrown about. In his last tour of duty, this was definitely the circumstance for #1 (WBC) ranked featherweight boxer Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KO’s). Ball fought and was seemingly duped out of a victory over WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas (36-1-1, 22 KO’s).
While competing under the hot lights of Kingdom Arena located in Saudi Arabia, there is no doubt that Ball dropped the first several rounds to Vargas. The Mexican champion enjoyed an almost comical height and reach advantage over his UK adversary. With this advantage, Vargas easily peppered and picked off Ball with his jab. This would not color the entirety of the duel, however.
SHIFTING SANDS OF SHADINESS
With the coming of the fifth, and undeniably by the sixth, Ball began consistently finding paydirt with the heavy shots he was shoveling into Vargas’ face. Once he found this rhythm, the UK bruiser dug into Vargas like a high calf charlie horse and never relented.
For his efforts, Ball dropped Vargas twice and had him hightailing it around the ring for many consecutive rounds. With this sharp swing in action, Ball, the crowd at hand, and 3Kings Boxing thought he’d done more than enough to get his hand raised. The judges thought otherwise.
“Yeah, it’s a strange moment for me now, to be honest. I didn’t expect this, to be honest. We came here to become world champion and nothing less and got a draw. It’s a bit mad, to be honest . . . the way that he was fighting, his body language and when I was looking at him, I felt like he wanted an out.”
“He was running away. I felt like he was running away and I was chasing him in the ring, throwing himself on the floor, yeah. He was doing that in that match. Why would he want to take a rematch?”
STAND UP OR FLAKE OUT?!
Ball raises an interesting question though. After transforming into Speedy Gonzalez in the ring, is it likely that Vargas would stage a rematch? Afterall, during his post-fight interview, the WBC champion kept bizarrely saying that he traveled to Ball’s backyard despite them fighting in Saudi Arabia and his opponent hailing from the UK.
This is said to say, even in the moment, Vargas was seemingly concocting an outlandish rationale for why he performed the way he did. The crowd at hand vehemently booed the decision and Vargas’ post-fight statements. In the moment, and under the pressure of a hissing audience, Vargas was very willing to offer Ball a rematch.
The question now: once he returns home while clutching his belt, will the champion still feel so willing to face Ball again? Or, will he forget his words and look for opportunities elsewhere? Stay tuned to 3Kings Boxing to find out.
