Bittersweet Sixteen for Oxnard’s Vargas : Youngest Amateur Fighter Learns He’s a Little Too Young After Winning

Before competing in the U.S. Amateur Boxing Championships in Colorado Springs last week, Fernando Vargas didn’t think his age was an issue. So what if at 16 he was the tournament’s youngest competitor?

He felt so ready to box with the big guys, he promised his trainer he would bring back the gold medal.

And the kid from Oxnard did. Vargas pounded five older, more experienced boxers and became the surprise winner of the 132-pound division.

The victory guarantees Vargas a place in the U.S. Olympic trials preceding the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His age, however, will prevent him from competing internationally this year.

Under USA Boxing Assn. rules, athletes must be 17 to travel abroad. Vargas’ birthday is on Dec. 7, so he will miss events in Russia and Thailand. Three of the boxers he defeated will go instead.

“It’s terrible and very disappointing,” Vargas said. “I really want this birthday badly. Boy I can’t wait for it to finally come.”

Vargas is the youngest U.S. national amateur champion ever, so inevitably, the big talk at the six-day event was his age.

Even Abayomi Miller had something to say about it, according to Vargas. Miller, 19, won the 132-pound title last year and was expected to repeat in ’94.

“Miller said, ‘How’s this guy in Pampers gonna beat me?’ ” Vargas said. “I hate that trash-talking. I never do that.”

Vargas, a sophomore at Channel Islands High, beat Miller, 29-23, in a semifinal bout and 17-year-old Terrence Cauthen of Philadelphia, 34-14, in the final.

Vargas also defeated 22-year-old Danny Rios, a Golden Glove national champion, 22-year-old Fred Neil and Hank Manchester, 20.

“He had a tough road to the national championship,” said Melanie Ley, a board member with the Southern California Assn. of USA Boxing. “He had one of the toughest brackets I’ve ever seen, especially for a 16-year-old kid in his first national championships.

“In all my years associated with the sport, I’ve never seen a boxer this young do this well.”

Vargas wasn’t intimidated when he saw his bracket, which is picked randomly and without regard to rankings. He earned a berth in the national event by defeating an 18-year-old and 25-year-old in the Southern California and Western Regionals, so facing--and beating--his elders was nothing new.

It also helped that he spent two weeks training at Oscar De La Hoya’s camp in Big Bear to prepare for altitude competition.

“Oscar is very nice,” Vargas said. “It was exciting to see him there training. He said ‘Go get the gold.’ ”

His biggest challenge in Colorado, Vargas said, was facing southpaws in his last three matches.

“My right hand was hurting, so I had to wrap it up real good,” he said. “But I kept thinking, ‘I’ll break my hand if I have to, but I want to take home that plaque and that medal.’ ”

Now all Vargas can do is train while he waits to turn 17.

Vargas gets up at 5 a.m. every day and runs about 45 minutes. After school he trains for three hours at the Oxnard Boys Club with the La Colonia Youth Boxing Assn.

No parties, late nights or junk food for this teen-ager. His strict diet includes a lot of dry tuna, steamed vegetables and broiled chicken.

Vargas says watching his buddies eat fries, burgers and pizza is often torturous. But his mother, Alicia Romo, says no one can make him abandon the routine. At times even she doesn’t understand his intensity and discipline.

“You know what I had to use for punishment if he didn’t do something?” Romo said. “I’d have to say, ‘If you don’t pick up your room, you can’t go training.’ And he would do it right away. That’s the only way for me to get him to do anything.”

Vargas started boxing when he was 10, after watching youths participate in the sport on a local cable channel. He won his first title as a 100-pound 12-year-old at the Junior Olympics regionals in Baldwin Park.

At 14 he won a Junior Golden Gloves title in the 125-pound division and in 1993 he was champion at the Junior Olympics in the same weight class. Also in ‘93, Vargas won the Blue and Gold tournament, a national invitational held annually in Southern California.

At the ’92 Junior Olympics, he was a silver medalist at 112 pounds. He has a 52-7 record in his career.

“Fernando adapts very nicely to his opponents,” said Manuel Herrera, president of La Colonia and a former boxer. “He’s not a power puncher, yet he has sufficient power. He also has a lot of style. Already they’re calling him the second coming of Oscar De La Hoya.”

Vargas credits trainer Eduardo Garcia, who has worked with him from the beginning. Garcia, a strawberry field foreman, boxed in Mexico and volunteers at La Colonia.

“He’s taught me everything I know about boxing, but he’s also taught me good values and he’s given me great advice,” Vargas said. “That’s why I’m a smart fighter. I use my mind a lot.”

Garcia says few young boxers are as dedicated as Vargas. “Sometimes I have to stop him because he wants to train more than he has to,” Garcia said in Spanish. “He is an ideal kid and he has what it takes to become a grand champion.”

Vargas is getting used to the attention. He has done interviews with more than 10 publications and a handful of television and radio stations since returning to Oxnard.

The hype started after his championship match Saturday. A writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator for the cable channel televising the event approached him for interviews.

“I was so happy,” Vargas said. “I felt kind of . . . I don’t know . . . famous!”

It was great, he said, even though they wouldn’t stop asking about his age.