Oscar Gets Off the Hook

Silk pajamas?

Fernando Vargas may want to borrow a pair for his battered and bloodied body.

Too much golf?

Maybe that explains why Vargas appeared to have been clubbed with a three-iron.

Chicken De La Hoya?

On a brutally redemptive Saturday night, Vargas and a boxing world full of critics--including this one--choked on it.

His reputation challenged, his machismo questioned, his career in jeopardy, Oscar De La Hoya made everything right. Then left. Then right. Then left.

Right, left, right, left ... on it went for 16 consecutive punches in an 11th-round flurry that finished Fernando Vargas in a knockout that was more than just technical.

Flattened forever was the notion that De La Hoya is not tough enough.

Pounded into the canvas was the idea that De La Hoya is not inspired enough.

Buried under the streets of East Los Angeles was the belief that De La Hoya is not worthy of being our city’s champion.

One moment, the 11,425 fans at Mandalay Bay Events Center were chanting, “Var-gas, Var-gas, Var-gas.”

The next moment, like many other experts, they were loudly unafraid to admit they were wrong, changing their tune to, “Os-car, Os-car, Os-car.”

In less than an hour, De La Hoya tore through the criticism of a career.

With one final punch, he silenced a voice that has haunted him for years.

At which point, he spit out his red mouthpiece, stuck out his tongue and danced smiling and preening across the ring with the innocent jubilation of a kid who had just found a bike.

A fighter who had finally discovered himself.

“This has to go down as Oscar’s statement,” said promoter Bob Arum. “The fight that marked him as a real fighter.”

Bad blood?

For the last several months, it was Vargas who drew it, stirred it, spread it.

It was only fitting that, in the end, it was Vargas who wore it.

The kid began the promotion nine months ago by shoving De La Hoya at a news conference. He ended it Saturday by hanging limply on the ropes, referee Joe Cortez pressed up against him to protect him from further blows.

The kid who glared and screeched and stalked De La Hoya wound up woozy and unable to speak.

The kid who said he was willing to die in the ring killed only his reputation as the toughest guy on our Southland block.

“It was very satisfying to see him ... I know it sounds a little bad, but it was like chopping down a tree,” De La Hoya said. “It felt pretty good ... he was talking too much. I did my talking with my fists.”

De La Hoya won a fight in the one fashion that few thought he could win it.

He struggled in the early rounds, wide-eyed and seemingly stunned at Vargas’ powerful punches that bounced him off the ropes.

But he recovered in the middle rounds, dancing and ducking and wearing Vargas down with his style.

Leading the fight in the ninth round, De La Hoya then seemed to start running, making folks wonder if this wasn’t going to be a repeat of his late debacle against Felix Trinidad.

But again, he recovered, knocking Vargas down with a left hook at the start of the 11th round before pounding him into submission at the end.

The guy who wasn’t strong enough to survive an early flurry, he survived.

The guy who wasn’t inspired to keep fighting with a lead, he fought.

The guy who was too nice to win was meaner than a Vargas tattoo.

“Every time I hit him with a jab, I saw his face squint, so I knew I was getting to him,” De La Hoya said. “In the 11th round, I decided to feint the jab and use the left hook, and he fell for it.”

And De La Hoya did it with class. One of the most amazing things about this new Oscar is that it did not obliterate the old Oscar.

When he hit Vargas with a punch after the bell in the sixth round, he actually stuck out his hand in an apology.

And the first thing he did afterward was offer compliments.

“Vargas was a very, very strong puncher,” De La Hoya said in the ring. “I was patient, I went to the body, I had to use combinations. His strength really surprised me.”

This being his first fight in 15 months, De La Hoya’s commitment and endurance were even more surprising.

Every time it appeared that Vargas was one punch from a knockdown, De La Hoya punched first. After every Vargas charge, De La Hoya regrouped and charged back.

According to this scorecard, at the time of the technical knockout at 1:48 of the 11th round, Vargas could still have fought to a draw if he had won the last two rounds. Two of the three judges agreed.

“Looked to me like he took a lot of punishment on the ropes in the early rounds, but then he came out of it and fought a great fight,” Arum said.

Which could now lead to more great fights, if De La Hoya’s pre-fight pronouncements are to be believed.

He said that before he retired, he wanted to avenge losses to Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad, then move up to challenge middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

This means Mosley, after he fights an easier opponent for his debut at 154 pounds, could show up on De La Hoya’s card next spring.

As for Vargas, he did not show up after the fight, as he was busy being carted to a hospital. Yet he fought well, deserved the cheers, and belongs again on this sort of stage.

Just not with De La Hoya, a man renewed, a Chicken no more.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.