Out to Make a Name for Himself

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.”

While other boxers might take comparisons to the only U.S. boxer who won an Olympic gold medal in Barcelona as a compliment, Vargas sees it as more of a curse.

That he and De La Hoya have so much in common makes it even more difficult as Vargas chases the gold medal that catapulted De La Hoya to professional stardom and riches.

“I don’t want to be known as the next Oscar De La Hoya,” Vargas said after his 21-7 victory over Fareed Samad put him in the final this afternoon against Gary Jones. “I want to be known as the first Fernando Vargas.”

Vargas has had to shake comparisons to De La Hoya since his promising amateur career blossomed into a 139-pound title in the 1995 U.S. Championships at the age of 17.

Not only did Vargas win young like De La Hoya, both are hard-punching Mexican Americans from Southern California. Both train at separate camps in Big Bear, where Vargas went for three weeks before the trials to prepare.

It’s a subject that has grown to anger Vargas, just as his dislike of De La Hoya has grown since the two once sparred together.

“Personally I don’t like the way Oscar fights,” said Vargas, who once idolized De La Hoya. “He’s been hyped too much. He’s protected a lot as a fighter, too. He doesn’t fight the tough fighters out there.”

Vargas remains perturbed about De La Hoya’s actions toward him following the sparring session, in which he said he more than held his own.

“He didn’t talk to me or nothing,” Vargas said. “That’s one thing I didn’t appreciate.”

Vargas, who moved up to 147 pounds this year, suffered a setback when he lost to David Palac of Hamtramck, Mich., in the early rounds of the U.S. Championships in February. He blamed the loss on a lack of training and vows the mistake will never happen again.

“That was a wake-up call for me,” Vargas said. “Now I’m not going to be satisfied until I’m on the Olympic team.”

Vargas has defeated Jones twice, the last time in February at the U.S. Championships.

Boxers who win today qualify for the Olympic box-offs April 18-20 in Augusta, Ga., along with the fighters who come out on top of the losers’ bracket in each weight division.