Welcome back, Israel. (Photo by Jacob de Golish/Getty Images)

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I have yet to see the fight myself, but all reports are that former 122-pound world champion Israel Vazquez got off to a shaky start in his boxing comeback, eventually beating journeyman Angel Priolo with a ninth round TKO.

The live updates we had during the Latin Fury 12 card painted it as Vazquez really struggling, getting cut, and seeming to understand that he needed to fight with urgency, which in turn led to the stoppage. The AP's Greg Beacham says much the same:

Vazquez (44-4, 30 KOs) looked shaky in long stretches of his first bout since concluding his phenomenal rivalry with Rafael Marquez early last year. The former 122-pound world champion developed swelling around both eyes, and a 2-inch cut opened over his left eye during the sixth round.

But Vazquez kept fighting and eventually caught up to Priolo (30-8), a Colombian former title contender who has lost seven straight fights. Vazquez knocked down Priolo three times in the ninth, finally forcing the stoppage in the last minute.

The bad news is that Izzy didn't look so good, and what makes that worse news is that Priolo isn't good. Priolo (30-8, 20 KO) had lost his last six fights, five by knockout, and he was fighting Vazquez near the featherweight limit tonight. Priolo was a flyweight when he started his losing streak, and making it worse yet is that the losing streak started five years ago. He's a part-time fighter at best and hasn't beaten anyone since 2004, and all but three of his wins came against bums in Colombia.

Vazquez (44-4, 32 KO) will need more tuning up, and it might simply be unrealistic to expect him to ever fight at his old level, or even particularly close to it. His body's gone through hell, not just from the Marquez fights, but many other vicious wars he's had in his spectacular career.

The good news? He's back, and hopefully he felt stronger as it went along, and he comes out of the fight with no injuries. I wouldn't suggest he goes right into the fourth fight with Rafael Marquez, which seems an inevitability now. Maybe revisited a fight with Al Seeger, which had been rumored before the Vazquez team plucked Priolo out of the grab-bag. Seeger is a lot better than Priolo, and if Izzy's really as beaten up as people are making it sound as though he appeared tonight, he might not get past Seeger. They might want to cash in the chips and make some money against Marquez as soon as possible.

Vazquez has bigger plans:

“I was a little rusty, but I wanted to knock him out,” Vazquez said. “I was really hungry for the win. I’m a warrior, and I’ve been showing that all along in my career, and now I want the big fights again. I was getting a little tired, and it took me a little bit of time to get my rhythm back, but my eye didn’t bother me at al.. It was just the cut. I had a good opponent tonight, but I was hungry.”

The fight was Vazquez's featherweight debut. He called for a fight with WBA featherwieght champion Chris John.

Time will tell. For now, welcome back to boxing, Israel Vazquez.