Vargas ruins Tomlinson in eight

SAN ANTONIO – A sparse crowd gathered Thursday night at Freeman Coliseum, located beside the stadium in which the world champion Spurs play, and the small turnout was an unfortunate turn, as the evening’s main event, undefeated Mexican junior lightweight Fernando Vargas versus Australian Will Tomlinson, a match broadcast on HBO Latino, deserved a much larger crowd.

Vargas (22-0-1, 16 KOs) stopped Tomlinson (23-2-1, 13 KOs) early in the eighth round of a fight that proved the Mexican’s class and the Australian’s mettle.

After two fantastic rounds of near-even exchanges the Mexican probably got the better of, in round 3 an accidental collision of heads opened an abrasion on Vargas’ face that partially salvaged the round for Tomlinson, who was otherwise beaten with impunity. In the fourth, Tomlinson, who was now bleeding more than Vargas, stayed upright mainly on the virtue of his roughhousing tactics.

Vargas’ onslaught continued unabated, even mixing-in left hooks to the body that nearly found their mark on Tomlinson’s liver. A Vargas left in the fifth found its mark and brought a visible wince from the remarkably sturdy Australian. Vargas’ savage pursuit continued through the seventh round, the conclusion of which saw a number of officials gather in the Australian’s corner to ensure he was fit to continue.

He wasn’t.

A minute into round 8, Vargas finally dropped Tomlinson and the match concluded.

FABIANO PENA VS. VYACHESLAV SHABRANSKYY
Thursday’s co-main event was a mismatch from the opening round when undefeated Ukrainian light heavyweight Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (13-0, 11 KOs) conducted target practice on plainly overmatched Philadelphian Fabiano Pena (11-1-1, 8 KOs) until Pena’s corner stopped the beatdown after five rounds, giving Shabranskyy another knockout win.

Better at every facet of boxing than Pena, in round 1 Shabranskyy hit Pena with nearly every punch in the boxing lexicon, and from a variety of levels, too, reducing Pena to hurling blind overhand rights in a sign of early desperation. After having every advance thwarted by his taller opponent’s jab, in round 3, Pena began taking stutter-stepped lunges at Shabranskyy. While bringing a rise from the crowd, these lunges appeared to take no effect on the Ukrainian who beat his hopeless opponent to quitting on his stool.

Shabranskyy appears to have every tool, and with HBO Sports’ recent fixation on all things Eastern European, there’s a very good chance the Ukrainian will soon find himself promoted beyond HBO Latino.

YAMAGUCHI FALCAO VS. RAYMOND TERRY
When undefeated Brazilian southpaw Yamaguchi Falcao (4-0, 2 KOs) and undefeated Philadelphia southpaw Raymond Terry (3-1, 2 KOs) made the evening’s final undercard fight, it looked evenly matched on the bout sheet. But it sure wasn’t even in the ring.

After swarming Terry from the opening bell with overhand punches and hooks of every kind, Falcao dropped Terry in the first minute and knocked him unconscious at 1:27. No 10-count was needed, and only one southpaw was still undefeated.

ARMANDO CARDENAS VS. MARCO ANTONIO SOLIS
The evening’s fourth bout, a six-round scrap between undefeated Texas welterweights, San Antionio’s lanky Armando Cardenas (7-0, 4 KOs) and Austin’s Marco Antonio Solis (3-1, 1 KO), began impressively for Cardenas – who dropped Solis on the second punch he landed – and then flattened out a bit, as the width of Cardenas’ punches and the durability of Solis’ chin slowed the action. After knocking the guard from Solis’ mouth in round 3, Cardenas showed hints of fatigue in the fourth and fifth before having both his chin and heart tested by Solis in the sixth.

Cardenas passed all tests, and won by unanimous decision scores of 59-54, 58-55 and 58-55. For a very tall fighter, though, Cardenas showed an alarming tendency to get hit with uppercuts – a trait he’ll need to remedy before improving his competition further.