BoxingTalk Story |
By Scott Shaffer
30/07/2025
Antonio Vargas D12 Daigo Higa. ... Antonio Vargas has retained the WBA bantamweight championship with a road draw over former flyweight champion Daigo Higa. The fight took place in Yokohama, Japan with the Florida man needing some late heroics to pull out a draw. Higa knocked down Vargas in round four and led on the scorecards going into the championship rounds. Both men were exhausted in the final round of a close fight, but Vargas dug down and scored a twelfth-round knockdown. Fighting in close, Vargas caught Higa with a short right then stepped out of the way as Higa tried to clinch to prevent himself from falling. All three scores were 113-113, meaning the knockdown is what allowed Vargas (19-1-1) to return home a champion rather than an ex-champion. The loss was a heartbreaker for Higa (21-3-3), whose last three fights were all very close but failed bids at a bantamweight championship: a closs loss to Yoshiki Takei followed by draws with Tsutsumi and now Vargas. Afterwards, WBA bantamweightchampion in recess Seiya Tsutsumi came into the ring and both men expressed interest in fighthing each other.