VARGAS ROARS

February 17, 2006 - by Ron Borges

It is odd, at 28, to find yourself where Fernando Vargas will be on Feb. 25. He will be at a professional crossroads.

Vargas should be at the height of his fistic powers today. Twice a world champion, Vargas should be approaching his peak as a prize fighter when he enters the ring against Shane Mosley that night in Las Vegas. He, in fact, believes that is exactly where he is and Mosley will learn this too late once he's trapped inside the ropes with him at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

He believes this fervently, as he does all things, but many boxing observers do not. A world champion at 21, Vargas was undefeated until Dec. 2, 2000, the night he fought bravely but ultimately was destroyed by Felix Trinidad, who dropped him in the first round, then got up off the deck himself later in the fight to overwhelm Vargas in the final rounds. When the fight was stopped by referee Jay Nady, Vargas was a battered shell of the fighter he had seemed to be when he entered the ring. Although that loss was more than five years ago he has never been able to erase its memory in many people's minds.

That is in large part due to the fact that three fights later, facing his most hated ring rival Oscar De La Hoya, Vargas was stopped again, this time in the 11th round, his face bloodied and his eyes blank and unseeing when referee Joe Cortez leaped in to save him from a final, concussive De La Hoya assault.

Since those setbacks Vargas has battled a bad back, a positive steroids test and four victories that have done little to convince anyone but his most fiercely loyal fans that he is again "Ferocious Fernando.''

Yet Vargas has pressed on, a young man who believes things will go differently for him against Mosley, who is himself at a crossroads after losing back-to-back fights to both Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright.

Outsiders look at Mosley's speed and conclude Vargas will have no answers for that beyond his brave heart, which remains unquestioned even by his strongest detractors. Everyone knows Vargas will come to fight that night on HBO but few people seem sure for how long. Few people but Vargas himself, who is brimming with new-found confidence in trainer Danny Smith and personal trainer Robert Ferguson.

Part of that confidence comes from being pain free for the first time in several years. Crippled with the typical back problems of a much older man, it had been several years since Vargas could even run outside to prepare himself to box. Now, with the help of Ferguson's strength training and diet, Vargas is back on the road again. Back on the road, he believes, to a career second coming people will find astonishing.

"Now I'm able to run outside because of the strength exercises I've been doing and I feel great,'' Vargas (26-2, 22 KO) said during a break in his preparations for Mosley. "I feel strong. I feel like I'm in better shape than I've ever been. I been training 14 rounds and in between rounds, before the minute is up, I'm up and ready to go. I'm going to be putting on constant pressure from Round 1.''

Vargas has fought as a junior middleweight since his pro debut in 1997 after a disappointing ending to his amateur career at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. So many years holding his body at 154 pounds produced three things: two world titles (IBF and WBA 154 pound championships) and predictable weight problems as he aged. Always a powerful puncher, Vargas'problems with weight led him to bouts of near starvation as he prepared to fight in recent years, a problem he feels explains his oddly lackluster performance last August in Chicago when he won a unanimous 10-round decision form Javier Castillejo in what was supposed to be a world title fight until Castillejo was unfairly stripped of his portion of the 154-pound crown for agreeing to face Vargas rather than some meaningless organization's handpicked opponent.

But that performance, like the losses to Trinidad and De La Hoya and his three other wins since losing to Oscar, have only caused people to wonder all the more what he has left for seldom has he looked like the fighter he was the night he first walked into the ring to face Trinidad.

While that doubt quietly irks Vargas, it has only served to heighten interest in his match with Mosley because it makes Feb. 25 a dark night of unknowns.

Fight fans may have questions about Vargas but they have doubts about Mosley as well and it is from such an unknown state of affairs that interest sometimes grows. What no one doubts is that theirs will be a classic confrontation between speed and power. Vargas carries the heavier hands by far, as Mosley has shown little punching authority since he moved up from the lightweight division to welterweight (which he admits is still his more natural weight at this stage of his career) and now to super welterweight. But how can Vargas match Mosley's foot and hand speed and his apparent superior boxing skills?

Many would say he can't but Vargas has insisted that he is reborn into a clone of what he once was - a pressure fighter who will come into the ring and break Mosley down by giving him no time to breath and little room to move. Perhaps he can or perhaps Mosley will simply elude him all night long, using his quickness and ability to slide form side-to-side to dull Vargas' advances. Whatever happens, these are the questions swirling around what figures to be a fight of high drama fueled by the underlying undeniable fact that both men's futures are on the line and each knows it.

"Shane is a comfort fighter,'' Vargas said, knowing that he is a discomfort fighter himself. "When he's comfortable he's all right. When he's not comfortable is when he gets in trouble. So I'm not going to make him comfortable.''

Vargas has promised to pressure Mosley from the opening bell until whenever the referee counts Mosley out. He is insistent that he is in the best shape of his life and has improved his defense without lessening any of his offense. At 28, such a thing is certainly possible because Vargas is chronologically at least at the height of a boxer's powers.

But is the calendar lying this time?

The Ferocious One thinks not.

"You're going to see the old Fernando with a lot sharper new moves,'' he recently promised. "You're going to see a lot of intensity from round 1. I have a big size advantage. I'm a naturally big guy.

"People don't understand I have to work hard to come down (in weight) but now I have a great team with Robert Ferguson. I'm able to eat more than ever and still lose weight.'' Vargas claims before the Castillejo fight he had to drop more than 40 pounds when his training camp opened, more than 10 pounds above what he weighed when he began training for Mosley. Finally following Ferguson's nutritional advice and workout dictates, Vargas says the battle of the bulge has not consumed him this time and so he will not suffer as he has in the past in the final days before a fight. He will not leave his fight in the sauna or on a scale, as has happened in the recent past. This time, he says, he will bring all his fight into the ring, enough fight to cause problems Shane Mosley cannot yet begin to imagine.

"Robert taught me how to eat (right) and lose weight and still be strong,'' Vargas insisted. "I've been training like never before. I know I have to look great. I know Shane's a great fighter. I take nothing away from him but with all the offense I've learned from Danny Smith you're going to see something special. I'm not going to even let him breathe.''

If Fernando Vargas can live up to such promises he will have retreated from the edge of the fate that recently befell his first conqueror, Trinidad. He will have avoided an early and unexpected end to his career at a time when many have that expectation for him. If Fernando Vargas can be El Feroz, The Ferocious One, on Feb. 25 he will not be a fighter at the crossroads any more. He'll be one back on the road to redemption.

"It's going to be the El Feroz from the past but with a lot more offensive work,'' Vargas said. "This time, I didn't have to lose 40 pounds in 11 weeks. This time I won't have to go into the sauna for an hour and then get out and pass out and thank God I could (still) box. I haven't been this excited about a fight in a long time. I'm not going to let him have a chance. I'm looking forward to this fight.''

If Fernando Vargas backs up his words with his deeds the rest of the boxing world will look back on this fight as a turning point in his career, not a crossroads. Then they'll be the ones looking forward, looking forward to something they're not quite sure he still has in him today - another big fight on another big night.