With a New Outlook, Vargas Thinks Positive

Fernando Vargas says he wants a clean slate.

That’s understandable, considering the Oxnard junior middleweight has been serving a nine-month suspension for testing positive for steroids after losing his last fight to Oscar De La Hoya on a technical knockout in September.

After adding several new faces to his team of handlers, Vargas talked excitedly about his future during a news conference Tuesday for his fight July 26 against Canadian Fitz Vanderpool at the Olympic Auditorium.

“I feel like a new man,” Vargas said, sitting on the rooftop patio of the trendy Standard Hotel downtown. “I’m excited by all the great people around me. It’s going to take me to another level.”

Since January, Vargas has been working out at a Venice health club with a physical trainer who has incorporated Pilates and yoga into the fighter’s regimen.

“It’s intense work,” Vargas said.

Vargas, who sipped from a bottle of vitamin-enhanced water, said that, under the guidance of a new dietitian, he was also paying more attention to what he ate.

But the most important change in the Vargas camp, at least from a boxing standpoint, is the addition of assistant trainer Buddy McGirt, who got the job after a one-week audition. Vargas rejected two other trainers.

McGirt, a former World Boxing Council welterweight champion, will work with Vargas’ longtime trainer, Eduardo Garcia.

“I needed somebody else,” Vargas said. “Two great minds are better than one.”

McGirt said he has emphasized more upper-body and head movement, and punching more in combinations, tactics that Vargas (22-2) got away from while winning 20 fights by knockout.

Although the 35-year-old Vanderpool (24-4-4, 13 knockouts) is the top-ranked contender in the WBC’s 154-pound division, the fight is considered a tuneup for Vargas, a two-time world champion who has not fought in Southern California since his pro debut in March 1997.

The bout will be televised by HBO as part of its “Boxing After Dark” series.

Tickets, priced at $302 (limited), $42, $27 and $17, will go on sale today at the Olympic Auditorium.