Rising Kiwi heavyweight Junior Fa notched his fourth victory this year Friday at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, outpointing a game Devin Vargas over 10 spirited rounds.
The scores were 99-89, 97-91 and 100-88, all in favor of Fa.
Fa, whose family is from Tonga, is a native of New Zealand but this was effectively a home game for him because Utah has a large Tongan population. But if Fa (19-0, 10 knockouts) was expecting an easy homecoming, he was sorely mistaken. He had to work for all 10 rounds. Despite the marked size difference – Fa was considerably bigger – the 37-year-old Vargas (21-6, 9 KOs) did all he could to make his opponent uncomfortable.
After taking some hard leather early on, Vargas was able to get Fa’s attention in Round 4 with a jolting uppercut. Vargas followed that up in the next round with a left hand that rocked Fa, who began to retreat.
Midway through the round, though, Fa stopped Vargas in his tracks with a left to the liver that forced Vargas to take a knee. Vargas took most of the count before getting up and, in a savvy move, also spit out his mouth guard to buy some more time. But Fa took control of the fight at that point.
Fa would send Vargas writhing to the canvas once more in the eighth round with a left hook.
“It was a bit (harder) than I thought it was going to be,” Fa said afterward. “I just wanna train a bit harder, fight better fighters, work on my craft. And, hopefully, I’ll be back in Utah.”
At the top of the undercard, Fa’s countryman Hemi Ahio had what amounted to a breezy walk in the park, scoring three knockdowns over blubbery Joshua Tufte en route to a second-round stoppage in a scheduled 10-round heavyweight bout.
The hard-hitting Ahio (16-0, 11 KOs), who had virtually no amateur experience, scored the first knockdown late in the opening round courtesy of a right hand as Tufte (19-4, 9 KOs) sat on the ropes. Early in the next round, Ahio downed Tufte once more. A few moments later, Ahio connected on a right hand that put Tufte down for good, as referee Chet Fullmer mercifully waved off the bout. The stoppage came at 1:10 of the second round.
After nine sleepy rounds of a scheduled 10-round welterweight bout, Ivan Golub decided to turn it up a notch.
The Brooklyn-based Ukrainian worked patiently behind his jab all night against an especially reserved Janer Gonzalez, but he ended matters on a violent note. Midway through the 10th and final round, Golub (18-1, 14 KOs) connected on a chopping left hand that flattened Gonzalez (19-3-1, 15 KOs). The fight was immediately waved off at the 1:56 mark.
There was relatively little action, as Gonzalez sought to play keep away for most of the fight, throwing but a handful of punches each round. The southpaw Golub, however, pumped his jab and repeatedly landed stiff left hands to the body.
There was a minor kerfuffle after the eighth round, as it appeared that Gonzalez’s trainer believed the bout was set for eight rounds.
In the opener, journeyman Mike Guy pulled off a mild upset, defeating Denis Douglin by a split decision in an eight-round super middleweight bout. The scores were 78-74, 77-75 and 75-77.
It was a patchy fight early on involving lots of holding, thanks mainly to Guy, who is known for trying to rough up his opponents on the inside. It showed midway through the first round, when a clash of heads caused a cut over Douglin’s left eye.
The southpaw Douglin (22-7, 14 KOs) had some success landing the straight left, but he had trouble adapting to Guy’s unorthodox rhythm. In Round 3, Douglin landed a straight left that opened up a bloody cut underneath Guy’s right eye. It didn’t seem to affect Guy much, as he fought well in the fourth and fifth rounds, rocking Douglin a few times with clubbing right hands. In the final round, Guy (12-4-1, 5 KOs) closed the show with a nice flurry.
Leading up to the fight, Douglin (22-7, 14KOs) swore that he would retire from boxing should he lose another fight. This was Douglin’s first fight in nearly a year.
