Fernando Vargas

Fernando Vargas, the International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight champion, was arrested early Sunday morning on suspicion of burglary in Santa Barbara County. Vargas was among five people arrested in the Summerland area after they allegedly broke into a house about 5 a.m. and assaulted a victim with a deadly weapon.

It's probably going too far to say Ricardo Mayorga had some sense pounded into him Friday night. Especially given the way Fernando Vargas punched him throughout most of their 12-round bout at Staples Center. But regardless of the reason, it's not going too far to say Mayorga was a different man after outlasting Vargas to win a majority decision.

Something about Fernando Vargas and his desire to stick close to home doesn't make sense. Vargas is spending the holiday season relaxing in Oxnard, savoring the seventh-round technical knockout over Yory Boy Campas two weeks ago that earned him the International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight title. Be it ever so humble . . . "This is nice," Vargas said. "Taking a few weeks off, relaxing with family. This is where I want to be. I'm a West Coast fighter."

At the end, after 12 exhausting rounds of pounding on each other, Ricardo Mayorga and Fernando Vargas celebrated differently, neither really knowing which celebration was for real. The bell sounded and Mayorga went to his knees. Vargas headed for his corner and the traditional stand-on-the-ropes and cheer routine.

Teen pugilist Fernando Vargas didn't bring home Olympic gold. But Oxnard treated the return of its golden boy Saturday like the arrival of a battlefield hero during days of yore. A large gathering of friends, family and community supporters--proud and impassioned--waited at Oxnard Airport for the boxer's noontime return in a tiny American Eagle connector flight from LAX.

True to his word, Fernando Vargas hasn't looked back. Nor has he forgotten. One year ago today, the U.S. Olympic welterweight from Oxnard was seething over a controversial second-round loss to Marian Simion of Romania at the Atlanta Games. This week, between workouts in training camp at West Palm Beach, Fla., Vargas, 19, undefeated in five professional fights, reflected calmly on the biggest disappointment of his life.

As word spread Monday that their hometown hero had been accused of a felony burglary, La Colonia residents expressed disbelief over the weekend arrest of boxing champion Fernando Vargas. "It's a lie," said 12-year-old Oscar Barron. "They're just trying to make him look bad. Why would he want to ruin his reputation?" Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies continued their investigation of Vargas and four other men who allegedly assaulted a man with a deadly weapon in Summerland early Sunday.

They were chanting "Fernando, Fernando" on Thursday as Fernando Vargas moved into the 147-pound final of the U.S. Olympic boxing trials. Once outside the ring, though, the inevitable talk was of Oscar De La Hoya. Vargas, from Oxnard, has heard it many times before. He didn't want to hear it again. "How would you like it being in someone else's shadow?" Vargas asked. "You like to be recognized for your work, not to be in anyone else's shadow."

The kid wanted to fight. In the streets or inside the ropes, against big, little or any size in between, Fernando Vargas was a scuffle waiting to happen, well on his way to a many-fists-in-the-face manifest destiny. He wasn't 11 yet, and he was way past ready to rumble. "I was always fighting in the streets," Vargas said last week, in his last day of home training before leaving for U.S. boxing team workouts for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

His Olympic defeat was narrow and unexpected, but Oxnard's local boxer will still have a hero's welcome when he returns home. At La Colonia Youth Boxing Club gym where Fernando Vargas honed his skills, fellow boxers, friends and coaches bemoaned his loss in the second-round bout. "He got robbed," said 12-year-old boxer Adrian Castellon, referring to the controversy surrounding the final score. "He was leading in the half rounds.

The time for taunting, teasing and trash-talking is over. Now it's time for Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga to settle things in the ring. The two former world champions weighed in Thursday at 164 pounds for tonight's 12-round pay-per-view super-middleweight bout at Staples Center. And the afternoon weigh-in was just about the only appearance by the two fighters that didn't end with the boxers brawling with one another. But then there has been a lot of time for bad blood to build up.

It's difficult to get real warm and fuzzy about Fernando Vargas. Sure, he's a boxer and you aren't expected to take them home and toss them in the crib with the baby. But with Vargas, it's a special challenge. You need to get past the tattoos, the six-inch diamond-studded cross necklace, the Rolex that hangs loosely from his left wrist, the limos, the entourage and all the gang-speak. As in, "Friday, we gonna be kickin' some ass, bro."

Ricardo Mayorga had blood-stained bruises on both cheeks, swelling around one eye, scratches on his neck and dried splotches of blood on his shirt collar. Fernando Vargas, his shirt and jacket removed, was standing in angry defiance, flexing his muscles and shaking his fists. And this was only the news conference. Menacing glares, trash talking and occasional pushing and shoving is standard procedure for pre-fight news conferences, a good chance to hype the event and push sales.

At the end, Fernando Vargas' tank was empty. And he knew it. Too many boxing wars waged, too much mileage in the ring, too much weight lost for this fight. And, Saturday night, too much Shane Mosley. And so, when referee Kenny Bayless stepped between the two fighters in the sixth round of their junior-middleweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and told Vargas he was done, the Oxnard fighter didn't utter so much as a word of protest.

In an era of steroids and human growth hormone, add another banned substance to the list: Gatorade. Banned, that is, from the corner of Fernando Vargas for his junior-middleweight fight tonight against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Judge Kenneth Cory of Nevada's 8th Judicial District Court granted a temporary restraining order requested by Golden Boy Promotions, Mosley's promoter, late Friday afternoon, prohibiting the use of the sports drink by Vargas.

The Great Bottle Controversy bubbled over Thursday when Fernando Vargas was granted permission by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to use a sports drink in his corner for Saturday night's junior-middleweight rematch against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Thick, white smoke billowed from the rear of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center--either Fernando Vargas was set to make a dramatic entrance or the place was burning down. Sure enough, a mariachi band struck up the opening notes of "Sangre Caliente" and Vargas came dancing down the aisle, through a screaming hometown crowd, climbing into the ring Tuesday night for his professional boxing debut.

After just witnessing the beating inflicted on William Joppy (and Fernando Vargas before that), history will show that Oscar De La Hoya had it right: In the ring, stay as far away from Felix Trinidad as humanly possible! Eugene Sison San Dimas

"He knows I was winning. The world knows I was winning. I was winning with one eye." Fernando Vargas, who will meet Shane Mosley in a July rematch of their fight two months ago. Mosley stopped Vargas in the 10th round. Vargas' left eye was swollen shut by the end of the seventh round.

It began with a punch that landed squarely on the left eyebrow of Fernando Vargas in the first round Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. It grew into a small bump, then a large lump, then a grotesque bulge as Shane Mosley kept pounding away at the growing target with his right hand, and occasionally his left. Short punches, overhand blows, stinging jabs all found the target. The eye began to close until it was just a slit and then, the eye shut completely.