Vazquez rally tops Marquez

Israel Vazquez has made a career of picking himself up off the canvas, and the Mexico native who resides in Huntington Park did it again Saturday to remain a champion.

A disputed decision by the referee in Vazquez’s favor didn’t hurt.

In another stirring chapter of Vazquez’s trilogy of bouts against Mexico’s Rafael Marquez, Vazquez overcame a fourth-round knockdown to knock down Marquez in a dominating 12th round that sealed his split-decision comeback victory in the World Boxing Council super-bantamweight title at a sold-out Home Depot Center in Carson.

Judge Max De Luca awarded Vazquez a 114-111 decision, judge Tom Kaczmarek had Marquez winning 114-111, and judge James Jen Kin gave Vazquez a deciding 113-112 edge.

Not only did Vazquez’s 12th-round knockout in the fight’s waning seconds prove crucial, so did the 10th-round decision by referee Pat Russell to deduct a point from Marquez after a low blow. Russell scolded Marquez twice previously about low blows.

The deduction turned a 10-9 victory by Marquez on all three judges’ cards into a 9-9 round.

Judge Jen Kin would’ve had Marquez ahead by three points with two rounds to go. Instead, Vazquez (43-4) won the 11th round on Jen Kin’s card, then claimed a 10-8 edge in the 12th thanks to the knockdown.

“It was a continuous thing,” Russell said in the ring after the decision was read to a pro-Marquez crowd of 8,014. “Finally, I had to take a point away. It’s always very difficult to do, especially in a tough fight. But I had to do what I have to do to be fair. It was an easy decision.”

Marquez (37-5) lashed out at Russell’s call, and the judges’ decision.

“I felt I won. . . . I hit him on the belt line,” in the 10th, Marquez said. Marquez’ promoter, Gary Shaw, said he would appeal the decision to the World Boxing Council on Monday.

Vazquez, however, had his own spin, arguing Russell “allowed so many illegal hits . . . he hit me low from the beginning of the fight.”

He also contended that Russell should’ve stopped the fight and awarded him a technical knockout victory when he capped his 12th-round onslaught of Marquez with the knockdown with less than three seconds remaining.

After the timekeeper slapped the mat signaling 10 seconds remaining, Vazquez backed Marquez to the ropes with a hard left hook and buried a right to his head as Russell dodged in to stop the assault and start an eight-count.

Both fighters raised their arms in triumph at the bell, ending a 25-round series that began in this same location last March.

Marquez won that first fight when Vazquez failed to answer the bell for the eighth round because of a badly damaged nose. In the August rematch in Texas, Vazquez returned to win by sixth-round technical knockout -- a bout that has been called the fight of the year and the round of the year for the classic exchanges that left both wobbled.

There was more of the same immediately on Saturday, as Marquez peppered Vazquez with jabs and came back from jarring blows in the first two rounds.

Marquez then planted Vazquez on the canvas with a stiff right in the fourth.

“Some of his shots stunned me,” Vazquez said afterward. “Raffy did a good job keeping his distance, moving his feet.”

By the 12th, Vazquez, who required 30 stitches to close three eye cuts, admitted his trainer “was saying that I was behind on the scorecard.”

Desperation worked, as Vazquez punished Marquez with rights set up by jabs, and other combinations that twice forced Marquez to hold on and stop the action.

“I gave it my all, I had to make a statement at the end,” Vazquez said. “It was 12 intense rounds. The last round was decisive.”

Vazquez earned $800,000 and Marquez $400,000, according to the California State Athletic Commission.

In a locker room afterward, Vazquez said, “If they want a fourth fight, I’d be glad to give it to him. Raffy is a worthy rival. And he demonstrated that tonight.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com