Timothy Bradley vs. Jessie Vargas: Live Round-by-Round Results and Highlights

Timothy Bradley captured the interim WBO Welterweight Championship with a unanimous-decision win over Jessie Vargas on Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The official scorecards favored Bradley by margins of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113.

Bleacher Report scored the contest 118-110 for Bradley, who is now a five-time world champion. 

Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KO) just can't seem to escape one form of controversy or another, even when he clearly wins a fight.

He was the aggressor throughout, dominating Vargas with his aggression and forcing him to fight the entire night going backwards. Desert Storm didn't come to suburban Los Angeles looking for a boxing match, he came looking for a fight, and that left his foe with many questions but few answers for his attack.

Vargas (26-1, 9 KO) nearly pulled a miracle—think Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor—when he tattooed Bradley with a massive right hand in the closing seconds of the final round, needing a knockout to win the fight.

Bradley somehow stayed on his feet and landed along the ropes. He tied Vargas up with under 10 seconds left when referee Pat Russell mistook the 10-second warning for the final bell and called a halt to the contest.

Vargas ran across the ring and jumped up onto the ropes with his hands in the air, thinking he pulled a victory out of certain defeat, only to realize the referee had made a mistake and prematurely ended the fight.

Bradley was clearly hurt, but he was fighting back and clinching, so it appears unlikely he would've been stopped. But you can certainly understand where Vargas would have a gripe, and a rematch seems like a distinct possibility.

Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeBoxing.