Local Boxer Hailed After Winning Spot on Olympic Team

For a boxer, even victory takes discipline.

As a crush of well-wishers crowded into Sandy’s Restaurant on Monday evening to salute Fernando Vargas, an Oxnard 18-year-old who has jabbed his way to a spot on the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team, the 147-pound welterweight maintained his poise--and his diet, which requires him to avoid sugar, salt and grease.

So while buddies from Channel Islands High School, Oxnard officials and others chugged beers and munched chicken wings, Vargas calmly sipped a diet 7-Up mindful that the fights that count will take place in Atlanta.

“It’s a dream come true, but only 50%,” Vargas said. “The other 50% will come at the Olympics when I win that gold medal.”

Of course, staying within one’s fighting weight is only one of the rigors facing a boxer eager to snag gold in Atlanta.

Normally, it’s a boxer’s job not to let anybody get too close. That was not the case at Sandy’s. The woman who stitched Vargas’ first pair of boxing trunks when he was 10 couldn’t stop squeezing the young hero.

And if his grandmother, Olivia Chavez, wasn’t clutching a microphone as she improvised lyric after lyric about the valor of her grandson to the music of a dozen mariachis, than she was sweeping Vargas into her arms and onto the dance floor.

Guys he wrestled with, studied with and hung out with at Channel Islands High School were also there in force to congratulate, cajole and advise the champ.

“It’s great, but the mission ain’t complete yet,” said Tony Montana, who like Vargas is a senior at Channel Islands.

“I wish I was in his shoes, cause I’m so proud of him,” friend Freddie Flores added.

Boxing, as Vargas well knows, is a solo sport. So in Augusta last Friday he withstood the jeers of a 3,000-strong crowd cheering on their hometown fighter, Brandon Mitchem.

“It didn’t matter how many people the other guy had cheering for him,” Vargas said. “I know my family and friends in Oxnard are behind me.”