Local champ back at home in the ‘805’

By Kyle Jorrey
jorrey@theacorn.com

THE PEOPLES' CHAMP-Ventura County's own Fernando Vargas spent the last few months at Westlake's KnockOut training facility in preparation for his March 26 return to the ring. Vargas hasn't fought for over a year while he was rehabbing a back injury, but said he is in the best form of his boxing career. Here, Vargas takes a breather between sparring rounds and untapes his hands afterwards.

Few fighters in the history of boxing have earned more respect in defeat than Ventura County’s original badboy, "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas.

The 27-year-old Oxnard native has lost only two of his 25 professional fights, but those two defeats, especially the first to Puerto Rican great Felix Trinidad, forever established Vargas as a modern-day gladiator, a fighter whose foundation was his heart and whose tenacity simply refused to let him give in.

Now, more than two years after succumbing in the 11th round to another boxing great, "Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay, that same unrelenting drive that has put Vargas back in the ring and in pursuit of the only belt that has eluded him in his storied boxing career: the WBC championship.

Preparing for the past five months in the comfortable and secluded confines of Westlake Village’s recently opened KnockOut training facility, Vargas is determined to write a successful final chapter in the story of "El Feroz."

"I want that last green belt," Vargas said, alluding to the color of the World Boxing Council’s championship waist-wear. "I want that green belt and I’ll be satisfied."

A new approach

Having spent more than half of his life in the ring, Vargas has matured into the consummate professional. Gone are the days of extended post-fight celebrations and starving himself to cut weight at the last minute.

"Now in between fights I’m going to be doing something, when in the past, four or five years ago, I wouldn’t," said Vargas, who at 16 was the youngest boxer even to win a U.S. championship. "It used to be ‘I got a fat check, I’m going to chill out, hang out with my friends.’ Not live like I was supposed to . . . now I’m constantly training. I know I have to give my all these next two years and take whatever God gives me."

In pursuit of the WBC belt, Vargas has acquired the services of boxing coach Danny Smith, replacing long-time trainer Eduardo Garcia, who was with him since age 10. He’s also added KnockOut’s Robert Ferguson to his team as a health and wellness coach.

Both Smith and Ferguson have fighting backgrounds: Smith as a boxer and Ferguson as an ultimate fighter.

"Now that I’ve got Danny Smith, he’s really opened my eyes to a lot of things . . . he’s a teacher in every sense of the word, a master of defense . . . the most underrated in the game," Vargas said. "The world doesn’t know who Danny Smith is, and the world doesn’t know who Robert Ferguson is, but hold on a second, they’ll know in a bit."

Vargas is preparing to reenter the ring for the first time in over a year Sat., March 26 in Corpus Christi, Texas, to fight a boxer to be named later. His last fight was a 6th round TKO over Tony Marshall in Dec. 2003.

A back injury caused his extended delay, and consequently, brought him to KnockOut for rehabilitation. Vargas credits Ferguson and his team of experts with getting him back to junior middleweight size (154 pounds), despite other dieticians who told him it was impossible.

"Boxers have been starving forever just to make weight, so by the time they fight they’re exhausted," Ferguson said. "We try to work with them and their nutrition and give them a healthy approach to boxing, and increase their performance in the process."

Running in the mornings and sparring in the afternoons, Vargas commutes to Westlake Village everyday from his nearby home in Camarillo, where he lives with his fiancée and his two young children.

"It’s great. It’s a skip and a hop," said Vargas, who has always been outspoken about his pride for "the 805." "I just couldn’t train in Corona anymore because hundreds of people would show up. I love my fans, and I feel honored they want to see me, but if you let a few in, then you have to let everybody in."

The Aztec warrior

Vargas’ difficult upbringing has been well publicized and still leaves a mark on this one-time street fighter, who found solace inside the ropes, a place where his powerful punches and fearless attitude landed him success, not jail time.

Now a multi-millionaire with a clothing line, an acting career and scores of fans, Vargas has never lost sight of where he came from and what could have been.

"I wake up and I’m blessed and humbled by everything," he said. "I’m 27 years of age and I look at this house and say to myself, ‘Man, I was 10-years-old, running away, sleeping in alleys, locked up in juvenile hall, going nowhere quickly and God saved me.’ I look around and see my kids, and I never had a father, and I know God saved me for a reason."

Confident that he still has a few years of boxing left in him, Vargas is determined to leave the sport on his own terms, refusing to listen to those who might have counted him out following his loss to De La Hoya.

"When I’m 30 I don’t want to be a shoulda-coulda-woulda guy," Vargas said. "I want to leave the sport on my own terms. I want to establish myself as a great fighter and say that I won all three belts that boxing had to offer. Once I do that, I’ll call it a day and thank God for everything."

The WBC middleweight belt has been held for the past four years by Bernard Hopkins, who at 40 years of age is looking more and more vulnerable.

But for now, Vargas is focused in on his next fight, and who he hopes will be his next victim. He’s won 21 of his fights by knockout, and don’t be surprised if he reaches 22.

Be they fans or critics, expect the eyes of many to be on the ring March 26 in Corpus Christi for Vargas’ headlining fight.

"It’s been a while, I know, and people don’t know what I’ve been doing," he said. "Some might say Fernando’s been out a year and wasn’t doing anything—but holidays I was working ... I still have that fire inside and I’m not ready to leave. I’m looking to remind the world that Fernando Vargas is still here, and he wants that WBC belt."

During the next two months, Vargas will make his final preparations for the fight on Catalina Island with Ferguson, Smith and his manager, Rolando Arellano

The March 26 event will be televised live on HBO.