By Matthew Hurley
The February 25 bout between Fernando Vargas and Shane Mosley remains an attractive match-up despite coming nearly five years too late. The fact is sometimes great, or near great fighters past their primes feel a certain sense of desperation as the sand in the hour glass starts to quickly run out. He may know, in his heart that he is a bit slower, more susceptible to cuts, more vulnerable because his past is now an open book, but when backed against a wall a true warrior doesn’t cower - he leaps forward and attacks. Both Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas promise to do just that when they finally square off in the ring.
Boxing fans will embrace this fight for several reasons but the main one may be that close followers of the sport are sensing another Leonard vs. Hearns 2. In that classic rematch, itself eight years too late, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, both well past their primes, staged a terrific battle that saw the "Hitman" deck his nemesis twice, in the third and eleventh rounds, and seemingly gain his revenge for their first go-round when he was stopped in the fourteenth stanza. The bout was declared a draw but it proved that those two legendary fighters had that one more blast of fire in their respective furnace.
Although Mosley and Vargas aren’t on the level of Hearns and Leonard they are two of the best fighters of the last ten years. Both men have tasted the spray of champagne after most of their bouts, and both have tasted the canvass and defeat. In Mosley’s case he has never seemed quite the same after he was nearly concussed by Vernon Forrest. He’s won titles after that, including a second victory over Oscar De La Hoya, but his lack of size and diminishing power as he rose in weight hampered his natural abilities and turned him into a less multi-dimensional fighter than he was at lower weights where his extraordinary speed allowed him to do just about anything he wanted to in the ring.
Two losses to Winky Wright, the second a much a closer effort than he is given credit for, convinced him to once again drop down to his more natural terrain in the welterweight division. And yet for this upcoming fight he will again move up and compete at the 154 pound limit where the bigger Vargas will have the natural size advantage. But Mosley doesn’t quite see it that way.
Choosing his words carefully he says, "The size can still work to my advantage. If I was to come in to the fight heavy, you know, trying to be a true 154 pound fighter it would work for him. But I won’t come in that heavy. I think he will come in heavy and be slow. I’m looking to come in around 151 and be quicker. He’s had problems with weight before. I haven’t (in terms of getting down to weight). I’m going to be very sharp."
Fernando may be the bigger question mark of the two. Many still wonder if the hellacious beating he took from Felix Trinidad on December 2 of 2000 permanently altered him as a fighter. He was still maturing at the time and suffered tremendous punishment but proved his mettle by battling back and turning what could have been a first round blow-out into a "fight of the year" candidate.
Later came a tough, back and forth battle with Oscar De La Hoya in which he was again knocked out. What followed were sporadic, less than inspiring performances, a near career ending back problem and ridiculous fluctuations in weight. And yet Fernando’s old fire, the fire that seemed to be covered beneath a new cautious boxing approach has resurfaced. Perhaps in realizing that he is now back in a do-or-die situation he will reintroduce his rabid fan base to the "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas of old.
"I’ve been training like never before," he says, unsmiling. "I’m now working with Danny Smith and you’re going to see the old fire. It’s going to be all out intensity from round one until however long it lasts. I’m going to be the ‘El Feroz’ of old. In this camp I didn’t have to sweat off forty pounds like the last fight. I’ll never make that mistake again. Mosley’s never seen the kind of pressure I’m going to put on him. I know he won’t be able to take what I’m going to dish out. I’m much stronger and I have the power and I won’t let him breath for a second."
In listening Mosley and Vargas during the pre-fight build up it’s apparent that both are keenly aware that the loser of this bout is basically out of the running for any big time match ups in the future. Although if it’s a close, competitive fight that goes the distance the two of them could hang around for a while longer but neither is anticipating that. Vargas, despite his focus on this fight, wants a rematch with De La Hoya. In his heart he envisions ending his career standing over a prone "Golden Boy". Pride drives him more than anything else.
Mosley, the more business minded of the two, sees his future wide open should he win. He can go back down to welterweight and await a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather or stay at junior middleweight and bide his time. In the end Vargas seems the more desperate of the two making him, perhaps, the more dangerous fighter.
It will be speed and style versus strength and size come February 25th. Neither fighter is what he once was but they bring as much fighting spirit to the dance as they ever did, maybe even more because this time it could be they’re last appearance on center stage. Sometimes that’s when a man makes his bravest stand.
