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Short shots about the world of professional boxing:
Israel Vazquez has been one of boxing's most courageous and exciting performers in his 15-year professional career. If he retires, as he should, following his third-round technical knockout loss to Rafael Marquez on Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, he'll go out with a 44-5 record, 32 knockouts and an 8-3 record in world title fights.
When ring announcer Jimmy Lennon introduced him on Saturday, he called Vazquez a future Hall of Famer.
I'm not so sure that's correct, though.
For as exciting as Vazquez was during his career, he doesn't have a lot of very notable wins on his record. His biggest wins were two over Marquez and one in a bout with Oscar Larios.
He was primarily a super bantamweight, but didn't face a lot of the true greats who were in that division while he was at a championship level. Vazquez first fought for the WBC super bantamweight title in 2002, losing to
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