“El Feroz” puts together a weak performance in second loss to Shane Mosley

LAS VEGAS (July 15, 2006) – Fernando Vargas’ second loss to Shane Mosley in a devastating technical knockout most likely ended his professional career. The crushing loss certainly corroborated the notion that he is a shot fighter never able to recover from the brutal punishment he absorbed in previous losses to hard-punching Felix Trinidad and boxing extraordinaire Oscar de la Hoya.

Vargas lost to Mosley, in front of 9,722 fans at the MGM Grand and an HBO pay-per-view audience, in part because he was weak as a result of his struggle to make the 154 pound weight category having to shed pounds quickly from his natural 175 pound body weight.

Beyond his weight challenges, Vargas never showed his trademark ferocious fight style and never put pressure on Mosley. Unlike their previous fight, this time Vargas was thoroughly dominated and lost all rounds before the fight was stopped at 2:36 of the sixth round.

Vargas, a Mexican-American from Oxnard, Calif., did not mention the word retirement, instead he said he intends to move up to 160 pounds. "Never again will you see me at 154," a weight he has struggled to stay at the last 10 years.

"Congratulations to Shane," said Vargas, 29. "He caught me with a good shot. I can't take anything away from his performance. It was his night."

A replay of Mosley's rematch victory against Vargas will be shown at 10 p.m. ET Saturday on HBO.


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“El Feroz” gets first chance to avenge a loss courtesy of “Sugar” Shane Mosley

LAS VEGAS — Fernando Vargas’ 9-year professional boxing career is relatively short and he is only 29 years old. In boxing years and given his numerous high profile bouts, he is a seasoned veteran who has absorbed severe punishment. The general consensus is that he may be a shot fighter after brutal losses to Felix “Tito” Trinidad and Oscar de la Hoya.



One thing is certain. After defeats to those two superstars, “El Feroz” (26-3, 22 KOs) is not the same fighter. He demonstrated some of his old luster against Shane Mosley (42-2, 36 KOs) in their bout back in February --which Mosley won by TKO when the fight was stopped in the 10th round because of a huge swelling around Vargas’ left eye. As customary, Vargas started slowly, losing the early rounds and getting his left eye inflated like a balloon. “El Feroz” fared better in the latter rounds and was gaining momentum backing off Mosley and putting him on the defensive until referee Joe Cortez ended the bout.

The rematch clash will take place on July 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (9 p.m., HBO PPV, $49.95).

This will be the first rematch of Vargas' career. A two-time world champion, he never got the chance to avenge previous TKO losses to De La Hoya in 2002 and Trinidad in 2000.

At only 29 years of age, Vargas has more at stake and appears to be the hungrier fighter. Losing twice to the talented but soft-punching Mosley would almost guarantee the end of his career and would certainly reinforce the notion that is a shot boxer.

A win on the other hand, would spring up opportunities such as a blockbuster fight with Jermain Taylor or Bernard Hopkins as he moves from the 154 to the 160 pounds division.

Vargas is confident and is convinced that he was on his way to winning their first bout until the fight was stopped. “I understand if he was punishing me on the rope, then I would say, OK, he was the better man,” Vargas said. “It was his fight and respect to him. I was putting pressure and he thought that I was going to tire and fade out, but he was the one that was fading out.”

Mosley’s father, Jack, returns as his trainer for this fight.



Fernando Vargas is a box office hit. His fans helped generate over 400,000 PPV buys for the first bout against Mosley. Latino fans are among the broad array of boxing aficionados that love Vargas' fearless, toe-to-toe boxing style.

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Maxi is the maximum Latino star at the World Cup!

With the 2006 World Cup now on the record books, it is time to ask what happened to the Latin Americans?

LACK OF CONVICTION IN THE YOUTH

In a way, both South American powerhouses Brazil and Argentina did not win because history and soil were not in their favor:

- Only once in history has a South American nation won the World Cup tournament in European soil. Brazil won its first title back in 1958 in Sweden.
- Individual rivalries weigh heavily and Brazil was coming off a loss against France in the final of 1998 World Cup while Argentina had a dead even all-time record of 2 wins and 2 losses against Germany.

Beyond history and soil, Brazil never reached the level of play the world expected starting with Ronaldinho who never seemed to get into "The Zone" and produce the magic we all have witnessed both with the national team and Barcelona.

In addition, unlike old as fine wine veteran Zinedine Zidane, Brazil's "Golden Oldies" Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Emerson underdelivered and showed they are burned out. Cafu in particular played mechanically and aimlessly. Head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira could not bring himself to select the new generation of exciting, dynamic and creative defenders in the lineup such as Cicinho, Gilberto and Luisao over the tested but depleted familiar names.

As well as Ronaldo played, it was hard to see lethal striker Adriano in the bench as head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira decided that both players could not play together. True, Ronaldo displayed moments of brilliance but he also disappeared from several matches.

Ronaldo did make history scoring 3 goals that bolted him to the top of the World Cup's all-time scorer list with 15 goals surpassing the mark of Gerd Muller of Germany.

Argentina did well but it perished as a result of several factors, but chief among them was the the absence of true conviction and faith in their two young phenoms Carlos "El Apache" Tevez and Lionel Messi. Head coach Jose Pekerman leaned too heavily on Hernan Crespo, Javier Saviola and most disturbingly on Julio Cruz over his two younger phenoms.


Crespo and Saviola did well, but Cruz and not primed for prome time youngster, Rodrigo Palacio, were non factors.

Hard to accept defeat when the top players don't get top minutes.

On the bright side, Maxi Rodriguez (pictured above), provided fireworks scoring the best goal of the tournament: a wildly accurate and powerful left-footed volley struck after a masterful reception of the ball with his chest that led to a victory for Argentina over Mexico in the quarterfinals.

Maxi matched Ronaldo and fellow Argentinean teammate Hernan Crespo as the leading Latin American scorers in the tournament with 3 goals each (Crespo was awarded a questionable goal against Mexico that replays show was an own-goal).

Unforgettable moments for the Albicelestes include their 6-0 trashing of Serbia-Montenegro with a festival world class goals, including a creative passing gem finished of by Esteban Cambiasso.

Ecuador did fine in relation to their expectations. They got out their group and battled England in the quarterfinals gallantly falling by a one goal margin. The team shined in group play highlighted by their impressive win over Poland, 2-0 and crushing of Costa Rica, 3-0. Not surprisingly, they got crushed by Germany, 0-3 in their last group match.

Mexico advanced to the quarterfinals and mildly disappointed falling to the Argentineans in extra time and as a result of a once in a lifetime goal scored by Rodriguez. The "Aztecas" were solid but unspectacular and never really looked as legitimate contenders for the title.

Paraguay played like Paraguay: hard-working, plodding, determined, with limited imagination, creativity and pizzaz. Paraguay is the "Latin American construction worker soccer team." Give them a few bricks and they will build a house. Effective but hardly worth watching. With their dogged determination the "Guarani" team managed one two narrow one-goal losses against England and Sweden and a late meaningless win over Trinidad & Tobago.

Costa Rica is the complete opposite of Paraguay. Costa Rica is the "Latin American floral designer soccer team." Give them a few flowers and they will put together a beautiful bouquet. Unfortunately, their bouquet always gets properly stomped on by a team with a more reasonable balance between beauty and efficiency, between artistry and pragmatism. This time all their opponents crushed their bouquets no matter how artistically and creatively they had been put together. The "Ticos" lost all three of their matches.

Zinedine Zidane rightly earned the FIFA Golden Ball award as best overall player in the tournament. Moreover, only two Latino players were selected to the Mastercard All Star Team, the "Dream Team" as determined by the FIFA Technical Study Group.

The Mastercard All Star Team is as follows:

Goalkeepers
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Ricardo (Portugal)

Defenders
Roberto Ayala (Argentina), John Terry (England), Lilian Thuram (France), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal)

Midfielders
Ze Roberto (Brazil), Patrick Vieira (France), Zinedine Zidane (France), Michael Ballack (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Francesco Totti (Italy), Luis Figo (Portugal), Maniche (Portugal)

Forwards
Hernan Crespo (Argentina), Thierry Henry (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Luca Toni (Italy)

- CGG -
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