Vargas Faces Private Enemy No. 2

It is obvious by now that any friend of Oscar De La Hoya is not a friend of Fernando Vargas. In the case of Raul Marquez, he is an opponent.

Vargas, former U.S. Olympian from Oxnard, will defend his IBF junior-middleweight title against former champion Marquez on July 17 at Caesars Tahoe in Lake Tahoe, Nev., in a bout to be televised by HBO.

Vargas, 21, undefeated with 16 knockouts in as many fights and the youngest junior-middleweight champion in history, was characteristically cocksure while squaring off against Marquez at a news conference this week. He expressed scathing dislike for Marquez and reiterated his longtime animosity toward De La Hoya, the WBC welterweight champion.

Vargas predicted a knockout victory.

“I have a personal dislike for [Marquez] because of the way he’s been shooting off his mouth,” Vargas said. “It’s going to be a great fight. It’s an incentive when people want to open their mouth. I’m going to shut it.”

Don’t count on Vargas closing his own.

Particularly irksome to Vargas is Marquez’s friendship with De La Hoya. Marquez, a teammate of De La Hoya’s on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, is training at De La Hoya’s gym in Big Bear.

They encountered Vargas during a promotional appearance by Vargas last weekend in Big Bear. Predictably, words flew--mostly from the lips of Vargas.

“We walk in and before you know it, Fernando gets up and starts talking smack,” Marquez said. “He had his belt with him and he got up and said, ‘You want this? You want this?’ He’s yelling stuff, and Oscar and I are pretty much laughing. That’s just the way he is. That’s his style.”

Vargas said he was friendly with Marquez during the latter’s Olympic days. At the time, Vargas claimed, Marquez expressed a dislike for De La Hoya, who won a gold medal at the Barcelona Games while Marquez was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

“He used to talk about Oscar like he was a dog, so we got along pretty good,” Vargas said. “I don’t know if they were trying to intimidate me, but they didn’t intimidate me at all. I guess [Marquez] wanted to show that they’re buddies again. That’s the kind of person Raul Marquez is, to go back to being his friend. And that’s the kind of friends Oscar has.”

Vargas, who failed to win a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games, won the title five days past his 21st birthday in December with a seventh-round technical knockout of Yory Boy Campas. He defended the title in March by stopping Howard Clarke in four rounds.

Marquez, 30-1 with 20 knockouts, won the vacant IBF title with a ninth-round TKO of Anthony Stephens in April 1997. He lost the title to Campas in December 1997 in a slugfest that was stopped in the eighth.

Marquez, 27, promised to pressure Vargas.

“He won’t be able to grab the way he did against Campas,” Marquez said.

Countered Vargas: “That’s what is known as being an intelligent fighter--something Raul Marquez isn’t.”

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P.J. Goossen of North Hollywood returns to the ring for the first time since September and for only the second time in nearly two years when he fights Hector “Macho” Camacho on June 18 at Struthers Field House in Youngstown, Ohio.

Goossen, 29, former IBO junior-middleweight champion, is 19-1 with 13 knockouts. Camacho, 36, is 68-4-1. The bout will be televised on ESPN 2.

For Goossen, who turned pro at 23, inactivity and misfortune have hurt his career. Signed to fight Roberto Duran in November 1997, Goossen flew to South Africa but the fight was canceled after he broke a foot in training.

Goossen is guaranteed $15,000 for the fight. More important, a victory over the aging but formidable Camacho could open doors for Goossen, who has considered retiring.

“It depends on how I show myself on the 18th,” Goossen said. “If I do well, of course I’ll stay in boxing. This will let me know where I’m at.”

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Mia St. John claimed her modeling days were over when she turned to professional boxing in 1997.

However, St. John, 11-0 with seven knockouts, couldn’t refuse a lucrative offer from Playboy magazine to pose for a nude pictorial.

St. John, 31, of Calabasas, is scheduled to fight an opponent to be determined June 26 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. Her next fight will be on the undercard of De La Hoya’s welterweight unification bout with Felix Trinidad on Sept. 18 in Las Vegas.

St. John’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent months. She has made numerous television and radio appearances, including a guest spot with shock jock Howard Stern. St. John, a divorced mother of two who holds a black belt in taekwondo, has strived to forge an identity as a fighter.

Why the return to modeling?

“It’s not the money, although we did negotiate for a long time before we agreed the price was right,” St. John said. “But that wasn’t it. I thought the exposure would be good for women’s boxing. I’m criticized for being pretty and a woman who is an athlete. I want people to know that I can be both.”