LAS VEGAS – Mirealgo.
That is Spanish for “I see something,” or “I zee zomezing,” as first articulated by Max Schmeling before he fought Joe Louis the first time.
Schmeling really did zee zomezing – he knocked out the then-undefeated Louis in 1936 – and maybe, so does Fernando Vargas.
Exactly what it is that Vargas sees remains to be seen, however.
Vargas, an unbeaten 22-year-old junior middleweight from Oxnard, Calif., says that he sees a flaw in the style of Ike Quartey, his opponent in a very attractive 12-round junior middleweight bout tomorrow night at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
That flaw, he claims, will allow him to achieve his greatest goal, which may not be quite what you would think it is.
Vargas wants to beat Quartey, sure. But what he really wants is to beat Oscar De La Hoya, his former idol and current antagonist in the battle for the hearts and dollars of Mexican-American boxing fans.
“I’m not fighting Ike, I’m fighting Oscar,” Vargas said on Wednesday, in a slip so Freudian even a fraudian like me couldn’t fail to catch it.
Being 22 years old, Vargas quickly recovered. “I mean, I’m not fighting Oscar, I’m fighting Ike.”
Whatever you say, Fernando.
Quartey may be the toughest opponent Vargas has faced in his 18-fight (17 KOs) professional boxing career, but there is no doubt that the real fight is with De La Hoya.
There is genuine hostility between the two, tinged no doubt with a healthy dollop of jealousy on the part of Vargas, to the extent that recently, De La Hoya said he would never fight Vargas no matter how much money the fight would generate.
Nobody really believes that, of course, but since right now Vargas can’t get De La Hoya into the ring, he is going after the next best thing, the opponent who came closest to really beating De La Hoya last March, even if the judges gave that distinction to Felix Trinidad six months later.
“I plan to show the world how to beat Ike Quartey,” Vargas said. “I plan to capitalize on De La Hoya’s mistakes.”
The philosophy seems to be, if you can’t beat ’em, beat the ones they beat, only better.
The animosity between Vargas and De La Hoya goes back to about 1993, to when Vargas, a star-struck kid, visited De La Hoya, recently crowned Olympic golden boy and rising professional, at his training camp for a guest workout.
Supposedly, De La Hoya was outwardly cordial to Vargas, but when the young fighter stumbled and fell while doing roadwork, De La Hoya and his buddies laughed at him.
Vargas never forgot the slight. At the Olympic Trials two years later, Vargas was openly expressing his distaste for De La Hoya and his belief that he could beat him, although De La Hoya had already won two world titles while Vargas had yet to make the U.S. team.
Turns out he did, but he lost his second Olympic bout on points and came home from Atlanta without a medal.
Now, barely three years into his pro career, Vargas is taking on a fighter who came within a whisker of handing De La Hoya his first defeat.
In a sense, it is reminiscent of last month’s David Reid-Felix Trinidad fight, in which the young, strong, talented Reid, an Olympic teammate of Vargas who did go on to win a gold medal, found himself short of experience against a seasoned pro.
“I don’t want to criticize David Reid,” Vargas said. “But David Reid always fought like an amateur and I think his style is still a bit amateurish. My style was professional even when I was an amateur, which hurt me in the Olympics, but it will help me against Quartey.”
In many ways, Vargas is De La Hoya turned inside out. Vargas lacks De La Hoya’s polish and affectations, the relentless effort to say and do the right thing all the time.
And unlike De La Hoya, financial success has not caused Vargas to leave Oxnard for the more-affluent (read: whiter) suburbs.
Both have an affinity for golf, but predictably, Vargas’ game is darker and more dangerous than Oscar’s: On April 19, he will face felony assault charges stemming from an incident in which two men were beaten with a golf club, allegedly by Vargas.
“I don’t play Oscar’s golf, I play ghetto golf,” he said with a laugh. Now, he plans to tee off on Quartey, if only to show the world that he is on a par with De La Hoya.
Mire algo, he says.
But who does Fernando Vargas really see himself beating tomorrow night? Ike Quartey, or Oscar De La Hoya?