Fernando Vargas: From Oxnard Prodigy to Light Middleweight's Most Bitter Rival

Fernando Vargas came out of Oxnard, California, with a ferocious left hook and an even fiercer temper. He won a world title at 21, which no light middleweight before him had managed so young. Over the next nine years he went to war with Félix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley, and the hardest of those nights also brought the steroid scandal that followed him for the rest of his career.

A Teenage Prodigy From Oxnard

Vargas was born on December 7, 1977, in Oxnard, a farming and port city on the Ventura County coast north of Los Angeles. At 132 pounds he won the Junior Olympics Box-Offs in 1992. The next year he took what amateur insiders called a triple crown, winning the Box-Offs, the Junior Olympics and the Junior Olympics international tournament.

In 1994 he won gold at the U.S. Olympic Festival and became the youngest fighter ever to take the U.S. Championships. A bronze medal at the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, followed at light welterweight. By the time he turned pro, his amateur record was listed at 100 wins and 5 losses. He was known as "El Feroz."

Atlanta 1996 and a One-Point Exit

Vargas made the 1996 U.S. Olympic team for Atlanta at 18. He opened with a 10-4 win over Tengiz Meskhadze of Georgia, then met Romania's Marian Simion in the second round and lost 8-7. The decision was widely called controversial. He came home without a medal and decided to go professional.

Knockouts on the Fast Track

His pro debut came on March 25, 1997. He needed 56 seconds to finish Jorge Morales. His first 14 professional fights all ended inside the distance, and the first six lasted only eight rounds combined.

Youngest Champion at 154 Pounds

In December 1998 Vargas challenged IBF light middleweight champion Yori Boy Campas in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Campas quit on his stool in the seventh round. Sources disagree on the date: Wikipedia gives December 22, while a contemporary report on The Sweet Science puts it at December 12 and says Vargas was 21 years and 5 days old. That made him, by that account, the youngest junior middleweight world champion in history.

Howard Clarke lasted four rounds in March 1999, and Raúl Márquez was stopped in the 11th that July. In December 1999 Vargas won a majority decision over the slick southpaw Winky Wright. In April 2000 he beat the Ghanaian former welterweight champion Ike Quartey on a unanimous decision, and in August he stopped Ross Thompson in four.

The War With Félix Trinidad

On December 2, 2000, the unbeaten Vargas, at 20-0 with 18 knockouts, met Félix Trinidad, who was 38-0 with 31 knockouts, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Trinidad's WBA belt and Vargas's IBF belt were both on the line. Vargas rushed out at the opening bell and paid for it. Trinidad dropped him twice with left hooks inside the first minute, the first knockdowns of his career.

Vargas got up and fought back into the contest. In the fourth round his own left hook put Trinidad on the canvas. Trinidad lost points for low blows during the fight, and ESPN reported that the official cards were nearly even after five rounds. Over the second half Trinidad's sharper punching took control. In the 12th round he knocked Vargas down three more times, and referee Jay Nady stopped it. At the stoppage the judges had Trinidad ahead 103-100, 104-100 and 104-99.

A Second Title and a Growing Grudge

In an ESPN column, Tim Graham noted that Wilfredo Rivera also put him down in 2001. On September 22, 2001, he knocked out Jose Flores in the seventh round at Mandalay Bay and won the vacant WBA light middleweight title, his second world championship.

The fight he wanted most was with Oscar De La Hoya. The animosity reportedly went back to 1993, when the teenage Vargas trained at De La Hoya's camp in Big Bear. On a mountain run, Vargas said, he slipped into a snowbank, reached out for help and watched De La Hoya laugh and keep going. De La Hoya said he had no memory of it, and people who claimed to have been there said he had not meant any harm.

Vargas claimed to be more Mexican than his rival and called him promoter Bob Arum's puppet. De La Hoya answered that this was the first opponent he had ever said he hated. At a January 2002 press conference Vargas shoved De La Hoya, and a publicist was hurt in the scuffle that followed.

Bad Blood at Mandalay Bay

The fight was first agreed for May 4, 2002, but was pushed back after De La Hoya hurt his left hand. It finally took place on September 14, 2002, at Mandalay Bay. Vargas's WBA belt and De La Hoya's WBC belt were at stake, along with the vacant Ring magazine title. De La Hoya was guaranteed $15 million and Vargas $6 million. The pay-per-view sold roughly one million buys.

Vargas started fast. He pinned De La Hoya on the ropes, landed right hands to head and body, and bloodied his nose in the fifth round. From the sixth round on, De La Hoya's hand speed took over and he opened a cut under Vargas's eye. He hurt Vargas at the end of the tenth, dropped him with a left hook in the 11th and kept punching until the referee stopped it at 1:48 of the round.

A Positive Test and a Nine-Month Ban

The defeat soon got worse. Vargas's post-fight sample tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol, sold as Winstrol. He said the drug had been given to him without his knowledge but accepted full responsibility. On November 20, 2002, the Nevada Athletic Commission announced a $100,000 fine and a nine-month suspension. A 2005 rematch proposal collapsed after De La Hoya insisted on pre-fight drug testing.

Comeback and Two Nights With Shane Mosley

Vargas returned in July 2003 and stopped Fitz Vanderpool in six. In December he beat Tony Marshall when Marshall retired after seven rounds in Tucson, but Vargas injured a disc in his back that night and was out for nearly two years. In 2005 he won ten-round decisions over Raymond Joval in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Javier Castillejo in Chicago. He broke his right hand in the third round against Castillejo and still won.

That set up a Southern California showdown with Shane Mosley on February 25, 2006, back at Mandalay Bay. Going into the tenth round all three judges had it within a single point, two for Mosley and one for Vargas. But Vargas's left eye had swollen badly, and referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight at 1:22 of the tenth. Vargas called the stoppage premature. At the post-fight press conference he confronted Mosley's wife, Jin, about a rematch, and security had to step in when an argument broke out between her and Vargas's wife, Martha.

The rematch, on July 15, 2006, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, was one-sided. Mosley out-landed Vargas 136 to 68 over six rounds and opened a cut above his right eye in the fifth. Early in the sixth a left hook dropped Vargas. He beat the count on unsteady legs, but Mosley kept punching and referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight at 2:38 of the round.

Mayorga and the Final Bell

Vargas fought once more. A September 2007 date with Ricardo Mayorga was postponed after Vargas was diagnosed with a severe iron deficiency. They finally met on November 23, 2007, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, at 162 pounds, a weight neither man had fought at before. Vargas was knocked down in the first and 11th rounds and lost a majority decision, 113-113, 114-112 and 115-111. Mayorga apologized to Vargas afterwards, and the two made peace. Vargas announced his retirement soon after.

His final record is listed at 26 wins, 22 by knockout, and 5 losses, four of them inside the distance. A planned comeback against Henry Buchanan in Las Vegas in April 2011 was called off. Outside the ring he played Tiko "TKO" Martinez in the 2006 film Alpha Dog and appeared in the 2014 reality series Welcome to Los Vargas. He later trained his son, Fernando Vargas Jr.

Sources

• Fernando Vargas, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Félix Trinidad vs. Fernando Vargas, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Shane Mosley vs. Fernando Vargas II, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Trinidad-Vargas fight report, ESPN, December 2, 2000
• Tim Graham column on De La Hoya-Vargas, ESPN, 2002
• On this day: Oscar De La Hoya defeats bitter rival Fernando Vargas in the 11th round, Boxing News
• Fernando Vargas returns, Juarez battles Chi on HBO, The Sweet Science, 2005
• Mosley stops Vargas in round 6, The Sweet Science, July 2006