Scorecard: Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido clear leader for fight of the year

— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:

Saturday at Carson, Calif.

Francisco Vargas D12 Orlando Salido

retains a junior lightweight title
Scores: 115-113 Vargas, 114-114 (twice)
Records: Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KOs); Salido (42-13-4, 29 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Making great fights is not rocket science. Matching Vargas, who won the 2015 fight of the year, with Salido, who has been in at least half a dozen wild fight of the year candidates, and then putting the fight at the StubHub Center, with its reputation as "the war zone" because of all the great fights that have taken place there, was a no-brainer. And guess what? They more than lived up to the lofty expectations by putting on the clear leader for 2016 fight of the year honors. It was a raging action fight.

Fighting less than 24 hours after the death of the great Muhammad Ali -- himself no stranger to all-time great fights -- Vargas and Salido, both hard-charging Mexican warriors, honored his legacy after a moving pre-fight tribute to the "The Greatest."

It was an absolutely fantastic fight from start to finish and left the crowd of 7,378 in jubilation. They all got what they came for because every round was exciting and it was close all the way as they went after each other with abandon. Both guys took and gave tremendous punches. Both were rocked. Both bled. Even when Vargas tried to box for a bit in the middle of the fight, he dispensed with that strategy quickly and went back to war, saying after the fight that is just who he is and how he preferred to fight.

If ever there was a draw that was perfectly legitimate, this was it, although that is like a win for Vargas, 31, a 2008 Olympian, because he retained his 130-pound title. He was making his first defense since taking the belt from Takashi Miura (who was ringside) by incredible ninth-round comeback in the 2015 fight of the year in November.

The CompuBox punch statistics illustrated just how close the fight was as Vargas landed 386 of 1,184 punches (33 percent) and Salido connected on 328 of 939 blows (35 percent). As for entertainment value, this was no jabbing contest. They combined to land 714 combined punches, 615 of which were power shots, which is second all-time on the CompuBox list for junior lightweights (just three fewer than the record 618 combined power shots landed by Jesus Chavez and Juan Arias in Chavez's 12-round decision win in 2001).

Vargas and Salido also combined to throw a CompuBox junior lightweight record 1,593 power punches (a combined 132.8 per round). The junior lightweight average is only 71.6. They shattered the previous record set by Chavez and Carlos Hernandez (1,475 combined power punches thrown) by 118 punches.

Already a former two-time featherweight titleholder, Salido, 35, was bidding to win a junior lightweight belt for the second time and it certainly would hot have been a robbery had he gotten the close call. But he didn't and dropped to 0-1-2 in his past three bouts, all of which could have gone either way and were terrific fights, including his loss and draw to Roman "Rocky" Martinez last year.

In the third round, Vargas suffered a small cut over his right eye. By the end of the fight he had terrible cuts around both eyes, although he blamed part of that on head-butting from Salido, who sure does know how to use his head as a weapon just the right way so as not to get penalized by the referee. The third round was one of the best rounds of the fight, which was filled with round of the year candidates. Take your pick: the third, fourth, fifth, 10th or 12th? There are probably a couple of others as well.

A moment after the bell rang to begin the 12th round, referee Raul Caiz Sr. called timeout to have the ringside doctor take a look at Vargas' cuts ,but he was allowed to continue, thankfully, and they battled it out toe to toe until the final bell in as good of a fight as boxing has seen in years. As soon as the fight was over, there was talk of a rematch, although only after both fighters take a good rest from this incredible battle.

Abraham Lopez W10 Julian Ramirez

Featherweight
Scores: 98-92, 97-93 (twice)
Records: Lopez (21-0-1, 15 KOs); Ramirez (16-1, 8 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Lopez, 28, of La Puente, California, and Ramirez, a 23-year-old southpaw from East Los Angeles, both had fashioned unbeaten records, but Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya knew if he wanted to get them on HBO, they were going to have to be in a real fight. So he matched his two prospects with each other to see who would take a step forward.

In an exciting fight, Lopez came away with a head-scratching decision win, one that HBO's unofficial judge Harold Lederman and most ringside observers had Ramirez, the nephew of late junior lightweight world champion Genaro Hernandez, winning.

But both fighters showed enough to be considered for bigger opportunities. They had the crowd cheering with their nonstop punching. They clashed heads in the sixth round, which left Ramirez, who was being trained for the first time by former bantamweight world titleholder Wayne McCullough, with a nasty cut over his right eye.

Ramirez probably looked like the winner to many because he had the edge in punches thrown, punches landed and connect percentage. According to CompuBox punch statistics, Ramirez landed 241 of 665 blows (36 percent) and Lopez connected with 213 of 618 (35 percent).