Negotiations Are Down for Count

One week ago, Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas reached a tentative agreement to fight on Dec. 8.

Thursday morning, Howard Rose, chief lieutenant of De La Hoya promoter Jerry Perenchio, called Gary Shaw, Vargas’ promoter, to inform him the deal was off.

What went wrong?

De La Hoya’s handlers say Vargas wanted too big a piece of the pie.

Vargas’ handlers say they were perfectly satisfied with the tentative agreement.

De La Hoya’s handlers say Vargas’ people hadn’t stipulated which tickets they were going to buy.

Vargas’ handlers say there was no point in stipulating ticket purchases since a site had not been selected.

De La Hoya’s handlers say they are concerned about losing the World Boxing Council 154-pound title if De La Hoya doesn’t defend against the mandatory challenger, Roman Karmazin of Russia.

Vargas’ handlers wonder why De La Hoya wasn’t concerned about that until now.

Punch and counterpunch. Point and counterpoint. Enjoy this fight because it’s apparently the only one these two sides will engage in for at least the near future.

“I didn’t want to get too excited because I knew something like this could go down,” Vargas said from his Big Bear training headquarters where he is preparing to face Jose “Shibata” Flores on Sept. 22. “What Oscar says is one thing. What he does is another. I don’t need Oscar. I think he needs me more than I need him.”

That said, this much seems indisputable:

Rose and Shaw began negotiating more than a month ago. When talks bogged down, Richard Schaefer, De La Hoya’s business manager, stepped in for Rose.

The tentative agreement--which called for De La Hoya to receive a minimum of $10 million and Vargas $6 million--was worked out and handed to the lawyers, Douglas Kranwinkle for De La Hoya and Pat English for Vargas.

And there the deal died before the lawyers even began going over the finer points.

“Don’t try to blame it on the lawyering,” English said.

Countered Schaefer: “The longer these things go on, the smaller the chance it will work out. We were negotiating for four weeks and, in the end, it seemed as if we were pursuing them more than they were pursuing us. If you have a chance like they had, you get on a plane and sign on the dotted line.

“We always wanted the fight, but it seemed like they wanted to get more and more. Enough is enough. Finally, we said, ‘You know, this is not working out.’ What’s fair is fair, but it has to be fair. If you have to do what you don’t want to do, then it is time to pull the plug.”

So now what?

Vargas will go ahead with the Flores fight with the aim of getting the vacant World Boxing Assn. 154-pound title.

De La Hoya will go ahead with the Dec. 8 date, probably against Karmazin.

And sometime in the spring, Schaefer said, De La Hoya and Vargas could battle.

“It could happen in another time and another place,” Schaefer said. “It’s not like we are never going to talk to them again.”

Perhaps, but for now, the two sides seem more intent on talking about each other rather than to each other.