Quartey, Vargas Are Fighting to Move Beyond Recent Past

Ike Quartey was in a daze.

Fernando Vargas was in a funk.

Quartey couldn’t put his last fight out of his mind.

Vargas couldn’t put his family problems out of his mind.

Quartey didn’t want to fight.

Vargas found he couldn’t fight. Not as he had in the past.

Two world-class talents. Two troubled men.

But tonight, they insist, there will be peace of mind, but no peace in the ring at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, where Vargas will put his unbeaten record and International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight title on the line against Quartey in a fight to be shown on HBO.

Vargas (18-0, 17 knockouts) has battled his way out of his hometown of Oxnard and through the ranks of ever-tougher opponents to reach the spotlight of tonight’s fight, his biggest to date. He won his title with an eighth-round TKO of Yory Boy Campas in 1998 and has defended that title three times, against Howard Clarke, Raul Marquez and Ronald “Winky” Wright.

It was against Wright that Vargas got it wrong for the first time in his career. With a mocking sneer, a devastating right hand, a good left hook and a strong jab, Vargas had knocked out all of his previous opponents.

But against Wright, a better fighter than his reputation indicated, Vargas struggled. Gone was the fluid movement, the ring control and the overwhelming confidence.

Vargas eked out a majority decision, leaving questions about whether he had even won the fight.

What happened?

Vargas only will say he had “personal problems.” He said it was not his upcoming hearing in Santa Barbara, where he is facing assault charges that could result in a prison term. Others around Vargas say he had a falling out with a family member.

But this much Vargas acknowledges of the Wright fight: “Fifty percent of me was not there. I won’t put myself in a position like that again. I would rather cancel a fight than fight like that. My fans know that wasn’t the real Fernando Vargas in there.”

Vargas said he was even thinking the unthinkable as he struggled with Wright.

“I wanted him to hurry up and hit me so he could knock me out,” Vargas said. “I was thinking, ‘Are you going to finish me off?’ I was thinking crazy thoughts.”

It wasn’t pleasant at the time, but looking back, the 22-year-old Vargas figures the experience ultimately may help him.

“It was a big accomplishment in itself just to survive that night,” he said. “I’ve got to learn to cope with everything both in and out of the ring.”

His opponent tonight has been trying to cope with his only professional loss for more than a year. Quartey is a former World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion with a 34-1-1 record and 29 knockouts, but for much of the past 15 months, he has fixated on the defeat.

Oscar De La Hoya defeated him in February 1999. In a fight in which both men were knocked down, De La Hoya rallied in the 12th round, his finest round ever in a clutch situation, to squeeze out a split-decision victory.

Quartey didn’t see it that way.

“It was very difficult for him,” said Godwin Asifo, one of Quartey’s advisors. “Because he knows he won, he was depressed for a while. He was not mentally there. It was almost like he was in a stupor. He was so depressed, but he just has too much talent to let it all go to waste.”

He did for a while. Quartey, with his 30th birthday looming a few months ahead, went home to Accra, Ghana, hung up his gloves and spent his money and time building a hotel and shopping center in his hometown.

Quartey has fought only three times in the last 3 1/2 years.

It always seemed to be something.

He was supposed to fight Pernell Whitaker, but Whitaker had drug problems.

Quartey was supposed to fight Felix Trinidad, but Trinidad had legal problems with his contract.

Quartey was supposed to fight De La Hoya a few months earlier than he did, but De La Hoya was injured in training camp.

And if the big names weren’t available, Quartey refused to accept substitutes.

“I want to fight big fights,” Quartey said, “but nobody fights me.”

He has his big fight tonight. The winner figures to move into an even bigger battle against Trinidad, probably this fall.

Vargas says his head is clear, his personal problems are no longer front and center, and he is ready for Quartey.

Quartey says that, while he never will never admit that De La Hoya defeated him, he too finally is ready to move forward.

And he laughs at talk of Vargas’ personal problems.

“We are pros,” Quartey said. “If you have problems, you don’t go into the ring at all.”

Trash talk and personal problems aside, the key to tonight’s fight, in which Vargas is a 2-1 favorite, may well be the jab. Quartey is known to have one of the best. Vargas also has a good jab, along with a larger assortment of weapons than his opponent.

“We have no fear that Quartey has a better jab,” said Roger Bloodworth, one of Vargas’ trainers. “We have no fear of getting into a jabbing war.”

The more likely scenario is that Vargas regains his mobility, strikes from all angles at Quartey and takes advantage of the rust that figures to have accumulated during his opponent’s long layoff and the fact that Quartey is moving up from the 147-pound division to the 154-pound division. At Friday’s weigh-in, Quartey came in at 152, Vargas at 153 1/2.

Whatever the outcome, it appears it will be determined by physical skills rather than mental outlook.

Depressing thoughts? Dazed looks? Both fighters insist those days are over.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fight Facts

The card for tonight’s IBF world junior middleweight championship fight between champion Fernando Vargas and Ike Quartey at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas begins at 6:45. It will be televised by HBO:

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Vargas Quartey 18-0 Record 34-1-1 17 Knockouts 29 153 1/2 Weight 152 22 Age 30

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