27.08 - 2-Time World Champion Fernando 'bad ass' Vargas has promised to brutalize clean cut good boy Oscar De La Hoya and turn their upcoming fight in to an all out bloodbath. The Oxnard fighter has expressed his desire to convert those words into action and will get his chance to when he steps through the ropes on September 14th to take on the most popular non-heavyweight since Sugar Ray Leonard. The Vargas threat did not go unanswered however, De La Hoya stated publicly that he has been having sweet dreams about silencing the glass-jawed Aztec in the ring.

It appears that the bad blood that exists between the two is not hype but is in fact the real deal and the feud dates back to Vargas' amateur days when he felt De La Hoya (34-2 27KO's) had disrespected him at a training camp.

"Years ago De La Hoya was running ahead of me on a snowy trail in Big Bear, I fell into a snow bank, De La Hoya ran by, I held out my hand and De La Hoya laughed and carried on running. I was 16 years of age and I looked up to this guy, he was like an idol to me because he had won an Olympic medal, something I wanted to do, but when I came out and sparred with him for two to three weeks I found a different person to what I had expected, it was a let down," said Vargas. De La Hoya denies the 'snow bank incident' ever took place saying, "It's a great story but simply not true."

When asked about Fernando's obsession with him De La Hoya said, "I've mentioned before that he's in love with me. He's always talking about me, even if he's fighting someone else. He got famous by trash talking me and people started saying he was my L.A rival, that was a smart move by his people, so lets take it up in the ring and see who's the L.A champion."

Since losing to Shane Mosley, De La Hoya has came back with the most impressive
performance of his career, in terms of accuracy. He landed 195 of 313 punches (62 percent) to stop former champion Arturo Gatti in the 5th round.

In his debut at 154 pounds, he dominated W.B.C Junior-Middleweight Champion Javier Castillejo for 12 rounds, knocking his foe to the canvas in the final round and going on to win by a margin of 119-108 on all three scorecards.

By contrast Vargas looks like he's still trying to gather himself after being castrated by 'Tito' Trinidad back in Dec 2000, in his comeback he took on the dangerous Wilfredo Rivera only to ran into trouble early in the fight when Rivera sent him to the canvas in the second round, but the knockdown did not have the desired effect Rivera was looking for, as an enraged Vargas got to his feet Rivera had the look of a man who had just disturbed a hornets nest....the fight lasted four more rounds then Rivera's manager intervened in the sixth to save his fighter from further punishment.

In his last outing Vargas picked up the W.B.A Junior-Middleweight Title from sparring partner Jose 'Shibata' Flores with a seventh round K.O, but didn't really display his usual ferocity in this fight either.

Fortunately for Vargas, Flores got sloppy in the second round and the former sent him horizontal with a right hook, Flores somehow managed to get to his feet and finish the round strong. Still, Vargas seemed a bit passive until the seventh round when he produced some of his 'pre-Trinidad fight magic' dispatching Flores in devastating style.

Vargas' power is exactly what De La Hoya's trainer Floyd Mayweather Snr is training the 'Golden Boy' to avoid, he has been working hard on minimizing De La Hoya's exposure to return fire for the upcoming fight with Vargas. "Our plan is to box by using the upper torso, using a lot of angles and speed , and counterpunching. Make Vargas run into things," said Mayweather.

Meanwhile just one block away from the De La Hoya training camp in Big Bear, Vargas (22-1 20KO's) is concentrating on getting himself into prime shape, being the bigger and stronger 154 pounder, Vargas plans to maximize that advantage by training harder than ever, twice a day, six days a week, no wonder he's won the respect of many, inside and outside the boxing community, his dedication to boxing and not to mention his courage inside the boxing ring is extraordinary and this writer for one hopes that Fernando Vargas can pull off a win.... but logic dictates .

PREDICTION - Oscar De La Hoya W.12

Clinton Mollett can be reached at fightgame94@hotmail.com