Mosley back in picture; Vargas fades out

LAS VEGAS -- One has a future. The other has a past. That was the story written by the fists of Shane Mosley and the crumpled body of Fernando Vargas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday night.

Mosley, 34, who hasn't knocked out anyone other than Vargas in nearly five years, reinserted himself into the welterweight and junior middleweight pictures with one mind-singeing left hand, which laid Vargas low at 2:38 of the sixth round. His reward was to fight another day for big cash. Despite all the hullabaloo about championships and title belts, Mosley won neither Saturday night. But he won something more important -- the right to demand a bigger paycheck next time.

Vargas, meanwhile, perhaps the oldest 28-year-old on the planet -- or at least in Las Vegas -- must grapple with the sad fact that he's been stopped in each of the four biggest fights of his career, each time more easily than the time before.

This rematch ended far more decisively than their meeting Feb. 25. Although Mosley stopped Vargas both times, the first fight ended when referee Joe Cortez stepped in to prevent Vargas from fighting the last two rounds because his left eye was swollen shut. When Cortez waved his hands, Vargas beat the air with his fists and insisted he would have beaten down the tiring Mosley had he been given the chance.

Saturday it was referee Kenny Bayless who had to save Vargas, but this time there were no protests. Vargas was helpless and hopeless, an innocent beaten half-senseless and left wandering. Unlike the first time, Mosley did not close Vargas's eye. He shuttered his mind with that one crushing left hook to the head that sent the proud descendant of the Aztec warriors collapsing onto his back as the crowd of 9,722 roared in astonishment.

Vargas struggled to push himself up on all fours, twice collapsing onto one shoulder in semi-consciousness before finally managing to lift his body.

Because of his reputation for courage and remarkable recuperative powers, Vargas was allowed to fight on -- but only for a moment. Only for as long as it took Mosley to deliver three hard, unanswered blows to the head. They bent Vargas low but did not send him down. But Bayless knew what he was seeing: the end of Vargas's days as a professional boxer if his family and friends care about him as much as they say they do.

From the opening bell, the two-time junior middleweight champion had nothing.

His movements were slow and robotic.

He couldn't keep the proper distance between himself and Mosley.

He couldn't move his head in time to avoid the older man's faster hands.

And he couldn't put together a combination because his reflexes had slowed to the point that if the left jab landed, the right missed, and if the left missed, the right remained cocked without the trigger being pulled.

Mosley (43-4, 37 KOs), meanwhile, looked the best he had since he fired his father, Jack Mosley, as his trainer following his first loss to Winky Wright. Perhaps it was coincidence that his father's return coincided with his first knockout since July 21, 2001, when he blasted Adrian Stone in three rounds to retain the WBC welterweight title.

Whatever the reason, Vargas's faded skills played a large part in what turned out to be Mosley's party, which he celebrated at the expense of an opponent he's known since Vargas was a 17-year-old amateur. That long history was evident when the battered Vargas, who had left the postfight podium not long before Mosley arrived, returned to hug his conqueror.

``That's a true warrior there," Mosley said in admiration.

Earlier, while still in the ring, Mosley had come to Vargas's corner and said, ``We're all brothers and we do this for our families. We are all California brothers. I've known you since you were 17. There are no hard feelings."

Indeed, there were none this time. While Vargas (26-4, 22 KOs) was faced with the stark reality that he had been knocked out by Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, and Mosley in the biggest nights of his boxing career, he was no longer willing to deny the obvious.

This time, he praised Mosley's performance, although he did add, ``I was slowly coming on." Attribute that to postconcussive memory loss and forgive him the absurdity of that statement for he was not coming or going anywhere. He slowly has been leaving the stage since Trinidad gave him the kind of beating six years ago that changes a man, a night of bravery and horror in which Vargas got off the floor from a devastating knockdown only seconds into the fight to drop Trinidad, but ultimately absorbed a terrible thrashing until the bout was stopped in the 12th round.

It was the same ending against De La Hoya two years later, when Vargas fought valiantly but ended up bloodied, battered, and pinned helplessly against the ropes. And now it's twice in a span of five months against Mosley.

There is no future in boxing for Vargas anymore. He talked bravely of moving up to 160 pounds and fighting as a middleweight, as if struggles making weight had led to his sad demise Saturday. Weight was not his problem.

Mosley and the ravages of too many raging nights of hand-to-hand combat were the problems, and for that there is no solution for an aged 28-year-old whose reactions are slowed by the beatings he's been subjected to.

For Mosley, the story is different. Since first being stopped by Vernon Forrest 4 1/2 years ago, his career has advanced in fits and starts. He lost to Forrest a second time 5 1/2 months later but then resurrected himself with a second win over De La Hoya to grab the junior middleweight title. Then came the unwise decision to challenge Wright, a fighter few wanted to face. Mosley accepted his challenge and was rewarded with back-to-back losses followed by less than stirring performances against David Estrada and Jose Luis Cruz.

He seemed at a crossroads when he first faced Vargas in February, but things can change quickly in boxing. With two solid victories over Vargas, Mosley is now in position to challenge either WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito or people's welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. early next year, the latter a more lucrative payday.

Whomever he faces, Jack Mosley surely will be in his corner, invoking his mantra of ``power boxing."

That is a combination of fast punches and a constant search for openings to deliver the kind of blow that sent Fernando Vargas on a new quest if he is wise -- the quest to find a day job.