For a Trip to Vegas, This Blood Feud Is Worth It

I look at the Golden Boy, and I can picture Oscar De La Hoya picking up a cute kitty and then handing it to an admiring youngster.

I look at Ferocious Fernando Vargas, and I can picture him stepping on the little sucker--cat or kid.

I listen to the Golden Boy talk, and I’m mesmerized by his charisma, his thoughtful responses, and it’s a good thing points won’t be awarded in Saturday’s fight for personality because Ferocious comes on like Hannibal Lecter.

Tuesday the Golden Boy and Ferocious came together for a Bad Blood news conference in a Mandalay Bay ballroom with fight managers and promoters throwing hot air haymakers at each other while De La Hoya sat restrained and above it all.

I can see the Golden Boy eating some bad sushi, but I can’t imagine this boxing superstar carrying a grudge, and so I asked him about Bad Blood, and he smiled and said, “I don’t hate anyone; it’s just business.”

And yet there were nine armed officers from the city police department in the room to maintain the peace between boxing camps, two large sheets of plexiglass hung from metal frames to keep them from beating each other up prematurely, and the expectation all hell might break loose at any time.

“I feel embarrassed,” the Golden Boy said. “I look at [the plexiglass] and I feel ashamed. But this is what Vargas brings to the table. That’s not me.”

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NOW I came here for a week to experience the hype and hoopla that come with a major fight--up to this point in my life only enjoying a good fight if it involved one of the brothers-in-laws and his wife. Only one divorce so far....

I do not see the fascination so many of my colleagues see in these legal assaults, but now I have a future son-in-law who says going to a fight like De La Hoya and Vargas would be the best thing that could happen to him in life. I mentioned that to my daughter in the hope that maybe going to see De La Hoya and Vargas really will be the best thing that happens in the Grocery Store Bagger’s life.

On the few occasions I have seen a fight, I just see two thugs getting into a ring with the intention of trying to kill each other while everyone screams for more mayhem. Reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner with the wife’s family.

But I decided to give Bad Blood a chance because The Times is paying me to stay in Las Vegas for five days, and when I’m on an expense account, I believe in having an open mind.

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THEY WERE serving cheese and fruit to the media before Tuesday’s macho news conference, which seemed a little froufrou to me until Vargas came in dressed in a sparkling blue velvet frock that suggested he better know how to fight.

Odd, though, he was surrounded by a posse of big guys as if he couldn’t defend himself if called out by one of the reporters. He had one massive guy standing behind him like some kind of bodyguard, and if Ferocious needs a bodyguard, why would anyone feel compelled to pay $49.95 to watch this guy fight?

On the other side of the dais, the Golden Boy sat unmoved, reminding me of Phil Jackson coaching a Laker game, while promoter Bob Arum and a bunch of muckety-mucks from Mandalay Bay took turns patting each other on the back for arranging this barbaric competition.

A Mandalay banner was hung on one of the ballroom walls with a quote from Arum: “These guys have a long-standing beef with each other, so this is a real fight. This isn’t something manufactured.” The gospel according to Arum.

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APPARENTLY IT’S well-known that Vargas doesn’t like De La Hoya, but hasn’t been very specific why he carries a grudge. This makes no sense because Vargas should be running up to the guy in the ring and kissing him for giving him a $6-million payday, and a role model for boxing success.

Vargas kept repeating to reporters that he’s in great shape, as if a boxer being in great shape five days before he’s supposed to fight is a news flash. “I’ll take my shirt off at the weigh-in and show everyone I’m ripped,” he said. Talk about moments in my career that I will treasure always....

Rolando Arellano, one of Vargas’ managers, stepped to the microphone and said,”De La Hoya is going to navigate the depths of hell and face the devil,” and if I were Vargas and my manager had just called me a devil, I’d have decked him.

De La Hoya, meanwhile, sat back while his trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., delivered a poem designed to call Vargas out. It wasn’t Robert Frost, or even Muhammad Ali for that matter, just mindless blabber, which seemed to go over well with the sportswriters who like boxing.

Afterward, De La Hoya smiled when asked about the Bad Blood charade, and said he has no idea why the fight has been billed as such. “I’ve never met the guy, never talked to him,” De La Hoya said. “I’m just going to work Saturday.”

Ferocious is full of rage. The Golden Boy appears relaxed. Ferocious wants to coax De La Hoya into an all-out street fight. The Golden Boy said he has done his homework, and is going to target the jaw of Ferocious. Those in the boxing know suggest De La Hoya will emerge with a convincing victory if he’s all business.

Who knows, if everyone emerges healthy, I might be in the mood for Bad Blood II--if Kevin Brown is agreeable to going into the ring.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Dianna Cowell:

“My dear, sweet, naive, T.J. The world’s first athlete was a woman. Eve intercepted the apple. She passed it to Adam. He couldn’t shoot. He couldn’t score. What a sin. He ate it. Typical guy.”

Obviously he grew tired of waiting for her to cook dinner.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com