Dominican Javier Fortuna knocks Tiquito Vásquez’s hopes for world title

Costa Rican boxer Bryan “Tiquito” Vásquez lost to Dominican Javier Fortuna Friday night in a heated battle for the World Boxing Association‘s  super featherweight, 130 pounds title.

It was a gripping fight with both Vásquez and Fortuna landing a number of punches, however Fortuna’s precision, speed and stamina allowed him to improve his score as the rounds progressed.

Tiquito had a lot of heart but he was unable to mount any sort of sustained offense against Fortuna.

The fight was sometimes sloppy with both fighters throwing punches in the air. Vásquez began pressing the action in Round 3 and hammering Fortuna on the ropes, but overall the Dominican landed more blows and cleaner connects.

Fortuna landed 64 more punches than Vásquez. Out of a total of 637 punches, he landed 237, or 37 percent, while Tiquito landed only 25 percent, or 174 out of 710 attempts.

During the last seconds of the seventh round the Dominican was about to knock Vásquez out, but Tiquito managed to return a few hits.

In previous days, Fortuna had predicted a knock-out ending for the fight, however the bout, held at the Barclays Center in New York, went on for the full 12 rounds.

Fortuna (28-0-1, 20 knockouts), ended the last two rounds by dancing and celebrating to a chorus of boos from the crowd. But the judges’ decision was unanimous in favor of the Dominican: 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112.

In the end, the fight’s intensity showed on both of the boxers’ faces: Fortuna had a visibly swollen left eye and Tiquito displayed cuts on both eyes.

Vásquez (34-2, 18 knockouts) said he has to keep his head high, look forward and continue.

“He constantly hit me with his head and elbows, he threw several low blows but the referee never said anything. The guy is too dirty, that’s the right word for him, but it doesn’t matter because in the end he won the title,” a visibly upset Vásquez told Telenoticias reporters who attended the fight.

Shortly after the fight Tiquito posted a message on Twitter saying he was sorry to have dissapointed his fans and that he had given it his best shot.