Tonight, HBO, 10:15.

 

Fernando Vargas(25 - 2) returns to the ring still on the comeback trail facing former world champion, Javier Castillejo(58 - 5) who is probably most notable for his loss to De La Hoya when he was moving up to light middleweight.

 

Castillejo at 37 is past his prime and his last notable win came three years ago against Roman Karmazin, who has since gone on to beat top prospect Kassim Ouma and former champion Keith Holmes.

 

Vargas will probably win this fight but he needs an impressive showing, as his last outing against tough journeyman Ray Joval wasn't exactly crowd pleasing. The winner of this fight goes on to fight Ricardo Mayorga.

 

On the undercard, undefeated prospect Rocky Juarez(23 wins, 16 ko's) goes up against Humberto Soto (36 -5) for the wbc featherweight title. Soto was a replacement for In Jin Chi, which would have been a real step up for Juarez but Soto is still a tough journeyman but I expect Juarez to win by KO.

 

I was really looking forward to seeing him fight Chi but seeing that this fight is really HBO showcasing Juarez to it's audience, probably better he's facing Soto.

Soto with a great spirited performance wins a close unanimous dececion over Rocky.

 

Soto was too big and threw too much for Juarez, their were two questionable deductions. They were fouls but they were fringe fouls which you really had to be looking for.

 

I had Soto winning by a point. Hell of a fight.

so far through round 5 pretty uneventful.

 

First two rounds were boring as hell, with Vargas way too hesitant. Third round, Castillejo went down by a body shot. Vargas started opening up more but still is a bit too hesitant IMO.

 

Vargas is clearly winning this fight but it might be a different story if this wasn't a 37 year old man who's fighting for the first time in a year

Vargas wins by UD.

 

Castillejo was game and fought hard but their's only so much you can do at 37, he'll take his million back to Spain and probably end his career sometime soon.

 

I like that Vargas is going to the body more but I don't see him as a great boxer and I don't think that he'll see much success against a top opponent.

 

The crowd greeted Vargas as a hero, at the end of the bout they booed, even some booing as he was announced the winner.

soto/juarez was good and suprising

 

juarez was just too big and too active ... juarez couldn't get into range and stay there

 

juarez showed some skill and determination, he just couldn't break through

 

I ended up fast forwarding through most of the vargas fight .... he's turning dull and was unimpressive again