Fernando Vargas Confirms September 8 Is The End

By Paul Upham: While he is still relatively young for a world class boxer at only 29 years of age, ‘Ferocious’ Fernando Vargas reiterated on Wednesday that his upcoming fight with Ricardo Mayorga at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, USA on September 8 on Showtime Pay-Per-View, will be his last.

“I will never fight again,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s for US$100 million. I don’t care if it’s with anybody that didn’t want to fight me before or gives me a rematch. I will never fight after this fight again.”

After his last fight loss to Shane Mosley over one year ago in July 2006, Vargas says he realised it was time to end his career.

“I take nothing away from Mosley, a great, talented, intelligent fighter,” he said. “But I mean, getting down to 154 pounds, I couldn’t do that. That’s not me. I went to the Olympics at 147lbs. Then shortly after that moved to 154. I was 18 when I went to the Olympics and 21 when I won the world title. I’ve been staying that way for 10 years. I can’t do that. This fight I still have to work. My people around me have seen what I have to do, and they can’t even believe it. It’s not even about money. It’s about me fighting and winning. That’s what it’s always been about for me. And I just feel that after this fight, that’s it. After the Mosley fight, the guy in my head kept messing with me for two months. Finally I said, ‘I can’t go out like this.’”

Vargas is starting his own promotional company Vargas Entertainment Promotions (VEP), will continue his acting work and pursue other business interests.

“I have a lot more other things to do in my life,” he said. “This fight is for pride. I’m built for pride. There’s some other things going on. I don’t need money. I’m very thankful to my manager for putting me in the right hands of showing my where money goes and what my money does, where my real estate is at, what my stock portfolio is doing. I’m going to concentrate on my promotion company. And I signed with ICM, Innovative Creative Management, Chuck Gilarde. Just finished doing a movie, ‘Stiletto’. I get killed in it, a gangster type, and I have a movie after this fight in Thailand that I’m going to be filming with Oliver Stone.

“I want to be the one that says, ‘OK, I want to retire, I’m going to retire’. Not people who say ‘retire now, you should retire,’ like some fighters like (Muhammad) Ali and (Evander) Holyfield. I’m going to retire when I want to retire and I’m going to do it on my own terms and I’m pleased with everything God blessed me with. I’m moving on to a different chapter of my life. I’ll still be in boxing with VEP. I promise my fighters I will get them and I will show them how money is made in boxing. That way they can see how it’s made and how business works and how they can get stolen from, how people can steal from them. And if they want to go with somebody else, cool. There’s enough money to be made in boxing doing it the right way instead of like, taking it from fighters. That’s wrong. You don’t do that. People put their life on the line and numbers don’t lie. So sooner or later people at the end of the day, there’s a surprise development.”

Making his professional debut in March 1997, after competing at the 1996 Olympic Games, Vargas won the IBF junior middleweight world title from Yory Boy Campas in only his 15th fight in December 1998. While he lost super-fights with Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley, twice, Vargas 26-4 (22) always retained his fan support through his determined efforts in the ring.

“I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in boxing,” Vargas said. “Three time junior middleweight champion of the world, only one in the history to do so. I made a lot of money and I still have my faculties and I still have my family. Everything is fine with me. My health is fine. I did everything I wanted to do in boxing.”

Sounding like he is really looking forward to his new career outside of the ring, Vargas has very clear thoughts on what he will be doing in the years ahead.

“More acting, more time in the gym,” he said. “After this fight I get to go eat whatever I want. Whatever I want I’m going to eat. If I want to drink a little bit, I drink a little bit. But now I like it. It’s for your health. I know now the fact that my body has been so used to doing something since I was 10 years old. Every day I used to do something at the gym after school. I got it from my biological father. I needed to stay in the gym, Monday through Friday and through the weekend. But, now, if I want to let loose a little bit, I’ll do that. But other than that I’ll be keeping my shape for my health, and looking good for my wife and doing movies and staying in business.”

Paul Upham

Content Editor