Bryan Vasquez and Javier Fortuna fought for a vacant WBA “regular” junior lightweight title in tonight’s PBC on Spike co-feature at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The first round was fairly competitive, but Vasquez made it his fight early and Fortuna seemed a bit out of his element. Fortuna did his best to steal the round at the end by unleashing a halfhearted flurry filled with less than meaningful punches.
Vasquez was composed in the fight and didn’t flinch at Fortuna’s physical talents, but he wasn’t making his punches count as much in the early going. Fortuna was best when he was throwing one punch, although it was clearly not going to be enough.
There was a respectful exchange at the end of the 2nd, but Fortuna’s elusiveness was the most impressive part of it all.
Vasquez tried to make Fortuna uncomfortable and make the fight ugly as a whole. That kind of fight favored Vasquez and it’s when he looked his best. It was somewhere around the 1:45 mark in round 3 where Fortuna tried to make Vasquez pay and we saw our second most impressive exchange between the fighters, but moments later it was Vasquez that evened the round. Round 3 was clearly the best round thus far, although it was difficult to judge who was winning.
A firefight broke out in the 4th round and it looked extremely even as neither fighter really hurt the other, and yet both fighters landed hard shots. The end exchange saw flurries answered with flurries and combinations with exclamations at the end. While Fortuna looked good in these moments he was still fighting Vasquez’s fight and allowing his athletic advantages to go unaccounted for.
Fortuna started to showcase skill in the 5th, but he was still reverting to a dogfight and allowing Vasquez to stay in the round. It was hard to give Fortuna a clear-cut round, not that he wasn’t winning rounds, but he rarely dominated in full stride without allowing Vasquez to have moments.
Vasquez was getting frustrated in the fight and he tried sitting on his punches just as Fortuna was sliding out of trouble, notwithstanding a few decent body shots Vasquez landed. Fortuna clearly took round 7 off, which was a shame because he had built real momentum in the proceeding rounds. Vasquez was just missing with his big swings and landing effectively with Fortuna in the corner.
With 20 seconds left in round 7, Fortuna tried to at least make his presence felt in a mostly Vasquez round by coming on strong. It was impressive, but far too late to actually win the round.
It was a trend that continued, both fighters waiting to come on strong at the tail end of the round, but neither fighter was ever dull for long. Vasquez was so close to landing big shots that looped over Fortuna’s offense, but they were mostly grazing, or the ones that did land were never as loaded up on as the over-the-top punches.
Both fighters tried digging deep in the last few rounds, but Vasquez was clearly tired while Fortuna was unable to land meaningful offense.
The fight ended up going to the scorecards and the judges scored the fight 116-112 and 117-111 twice for Javier Fortuna, giving him the unanimous decision and the WBA junior lightweight title.
Fortuna landed 237/637 and Vasquez was 174/710, spelling out the accuracy as a main component for Fortuna’s victory.
Fortuna admitted that Vasquez was strong and he was proud to get the win over such a fighter.
