Francisco Vargas rallies to beat Takashi Miura for super-featherweight title

Francisco Vargas looked finished. In a strong fight-of-the-year candidate, he showed he wasn’t.

Mexico’s super-featherweight recovered from a knockdown followed by a battering near the end of the eighth round to rally and record a stunning ninth-round technical knockout of Japan’s Takashi Miura on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay, where Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez were headlining the card.

With the stoppage at 1:31 of the ninth, Vargas (23-0-1, 17 knockouts) took away the World Boxing Council belt from Miura (29-3-2).

Vargas, in a startling display of will, was in big trouble after getting rocked by punches in a neutral corner after eight rounds.

Instead of fading after a minute’s rest, he found inspiration and knocked down Miura with a big right followed by a combination of punches.

Seconds later, after Miura tried to cling to Vargas for dear life, Vargas landed a left uppercut and finished him with another heavy blow.

Vargas staggered Miura in the first round with a right-handed punch to the head, causing the champion to shrink to survivor mode. Another right uppercut late in the round hurt Miura.

Miura showed signs of recovery in the third round, landing body punches that slowed Vargas.

Then, late in the fourth, he knocked down Vargas, belting him with a straight left on the nose that was set up by a jab.

A cut Vargas sustained under the right eye in the first round grew red and swollen as the bout proceeded, with Miura lefts compounding the problem.

In the seventh, Miura subjected Vargas with more punishing lefts to the face, leaving the challenger to lean on his will that was further tested by more lefts, leading to the flurry that closed the eighth by Miura.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba returned to the ring after an 11-month absence, boring the crowd with a performance packed with retreats.

Instead of using the pay-per-view stage to display more excitement against a heavy underdog, Rigondeaux (16-0) angered the audience by cruising to a unanimous decision over Drian Francisco of the Philippines.

Judges gave him a victory by scores of 97-93, 100-90 and 100-90, but the former champion was battered by Francisco’s post-fight verbal blasts.

“Rigondeaux is not a fighter, he is a runner,” Francisco said. “He is afraid of getting hurt and doesn’t want to fight. I felt pressured into being the aggressor during this fight because he wasn’t fighting, he was running away.

“He is not a power puncher and won by points. I trained really hard for this fight and I feel like it was a waste of time because I didn’t encounter a fighter tonight.”

At some points, Rigondeaux’s rapid hand speed impressed – and rapper Jay Z’s new boxing company, Roc Nation Sports, thought highly enough of him to sign him to a new deal -- but fight fans don’t pay to watch a disciplined boxer’s stance, and his disinterest in going toe-to-toe drew steady jeers.

In the pay-per-view opener, Santa Ana featherweight Ronny Rios overcame a point deduction and outworked previously unbeaten Jayson Velez of Puerto Rico in a unanimous-decision victory.

Judges awarded Rios (25-1) a victory by scores of 97-92, 95-94, 96-93 as Velez dropped to 23-1-1.

“I felt like I dictated the pace of the fight, and I felt like I was landing more power punches than him,” Rios said. “He did throw a few body shots at me that hurt, but they weren’t significant enough for me to stop pressuring him and doing what I needed to do to secure this victory.

“He actually surprised me; I thought he was going to use the jab all night, but he was definitely getting in the inside. This is a really big victory for me. I know that bigger things will come my way because of it.”

Rios was warned three times about low blows before having a point deducted in the fifth round of his fight against Velez.

The card did not include Coachella’s unbeaten Randy Caballero, who lost his International Boxing Federation bantamweight title on the scale Friday, missing the weight limit by a staggering 5 1/2 pounds and forcing the cancellation of his first title defense against England’s Lee Haskins.

Saturday’s show opened with the third knockout victory in four fights by one of De La Hoya’s most promising prospects, San Antonio lightweight Hector Tanajara Jr.

Tanajara, trained by Robert Garcia in Riverside, knocked out Mexico’s Jose Fabian Naranjo at the 2:10 mark of the first round.

“I knew I had to train for this fight and make sure I looked good in the ring, and I accomplished it,” Tanajara said. “This is a win for Mexico and I hope I started the trend … go ‘Canelo.’”

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