Columnist Dean Juipe: Vargas’ next foe is the pest of the bunch

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 29, 2000 | 9:36 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Whether it's a mistake or a clever stratagem remains to be seen.

But give Ross Thompson credit for a novel approach toward a fight with IBF junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas. He's not letting the sleeping dog lie.

"I want to start a war of words," Thompson, a former Las Vegan, said this week from his home in Buffalo. "I'm definitely going to talk a lot of stuff. I'm going to call him a bum and get him real mad."

His reasoning?

"I don't want him to look past me," Thompson replied. "I want him to be at his very best when we fight. I admit, he might see a fight with me as a letdown and I don't want that to happen.

"I don't want to beat him and then have him say, 'Oh, Thompson, I was looking past him.' "

While the fight has yet to be formally signed, Thompson appears to have landed a fight with Vargas that will be held Aug. 26 at Mandalay Bay. Thompson, who is promoted by Don King, has the inside track in that he's Vargas' mandatory challenger.

Vargas, 22, is 19-0 with 18 knockouts and is coming off a victory over Ike Quartey.

Thompson, 27, is 25-3 and has made a rapid ascent through the IBF rankings since hooking up with King (in April of 1999) and manager Nick Garone (in December of '98).

While born in Buffalo, he attended high school in Las Vegas and lived here until April of '98.

"I guess I'd worn out my welcome," he said. "I'd been in Las Vegas a long time but my career wasn't going like I wanted it to. I was stagnating."

A victory last year over Antonio Reese allowed him to move from No. 11 to No. 1 in the IBF listings. Vargas will either have to fight Thompson or relinquish his title.

"They make Vargas out to be a big star, and he's got the edge on me in that regard right now," Thompson said. "But his skills are nowhere near mine. I was impressed with him in the Quartey fight because he kept his composure when Quartey was bringing it to him, but I see him as a good but not great fighter.

"He doesn't do a lot of the extras like a great fighter would."

Thompson said he will open training camp next week in New Jersey and then move it to either Big Bear, Calif., or the Poconos in Pennsylvania. He'll be ready for the fight and he wants Vargas to be equally prepared.

"I've seen Vargas fight a lot," Thompson said, getting in one last dig. "I never thought that much of him."

At 215 pounds with a resounding punch, Thomas appears to be a guy who could make a decent living as a heavyweight fighter. But through the early portion of his career -- he's 10-1-1 -- he and his trainer, Jerome Coffee, have found only limited opportunities.

"Ruppert never had an amateur fight and is still in the developmental stage of his career," Coffee said this week as he watched his man work out at Nevada Partners. "The trouble we're having is that no one really wants to give us a fight against a comparable opponent."

Thomas is a native of Jamaica who moved to Las Vegas three years ago and has been fighting on the road. He's 30 years old and progressing well after losing his first bout as a pro.

"I just like the one-on-one competition," he said. "I've got a college degree (from Miami-Dade), but boxing's just something I like to do.

"I feel I've improved tremendously under Jerome and that I'm becoming more polished. I'm doing a lot more than just relying on punching power."

In spite of his Herculean build, Thomas said he is not a weight lifter nor has he used steroids. He said his physique was inherited from his father.

"He's got Mike Tyson's build without having Mike Tyson's disposition," Coffee said. "He's a warrior and a workaholic.

"I just wish something good would happen and that maybe we could get a fight in Las Vegas."

Thomas has served as a sparring partner for the likes of Frans Botha, yet has trouble getting sparring partners for himself. It was easy to see why as he rocked a heavy bag many fighters can barely budge.

"The matter has been amicably resolved," said an attorney who represented the jeweler. "The purchases will be paid in full by July 7."

Earlier this week, heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis responded to Tyson's verbal threats by issuing a few of his own.

"I'm sure that he's not mentally there," Lewis said during a conference call. "His punches don't frighten me. A good straight jab to his nose or an uppercut will straighten that out real quick. The biting or hitting me when I'm not looking, that's the only thing that frightens me about Tyson.

"He brings it to an animal level. He should go into Ultimate Fighting."

Tyson had made disparaging remarks toward Lewis about "wanting to eat your children" and saying "I will rip out his heart and feed it to him."

Warren called dealing with Tyson "a nightmare" and said he wouldn't be involved with the fighter again. It's clear Tyson had a physical confrontation with Warren in the days leading to the fight with Savarese.

As for the fight itself, an associate of Warren's, Sterling McPherson, said Tyson was only partially to blame for a postfight ruckus that included elbowing the referee and attempting to punch around him.

"The referee may have said the fight was over but he never gave the signal," McPherson said, referring to the referee's responsibility to wave his hands over his head when proclaiming the end of a bout. "The referee didn't take charge and it became a problem."

McPherson added that initially he thought Savarese "was taking a dive" but "after seeing the slow-motion replay it was clear he got caught cold and was out. There was no doubt."

* QUICK HITS: Adhering to a new WBC policy of weighing fighters 30 days out from a championship bout, Julio Cesar Chavez stepped on the scales Monday in Mexico City and came in at a surprising 142 pounds. By the WBC's guidelines, he could have weighed as much as 154 pounds for his July 29 fight in Phoenix with 140-pound champion Kostya Tszyu. "This fight is for my pride and dignity and I'm going to give it my all," Chavez reportedly said. "You can never discount the pride and will of a great champion," WBC president Jose Sulaiman exclaimed. Tszyu will be weighed today in Australia and, like Chavez, can weigh no more than 10 percent more than the fight's weight limit. Each man will be weighed again a week before the fight and can weigh no more than 5 percent more than the fight's 140 limit. ... A Fernando Vargas vs. Felix Trinidad fight is being discussed f or Dec. 2 in Las Vegas, Main Events promoter Gary Shaw has confirmed.

Arizona Charlie's has picked up a July 16 fight card that will headline bantamweights Mauricio Pastrana of Colombia and Adan Vargas of Mexico. Pastrana is 23-1, Vargas 29-1. The semi-main event has junior welterweights Golden Johnson, 18-4-2, and Diobelys Hurtado, 31-2-1, paired and scheduled for 10 rounds. ... Local welterweight Livingstone Bramble has taken a July 9 fight with Bruce Corby in Scranton, Pa., and has been approached about fighting former Las Vegan Greg Haugen Aug. 4 at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. "The rest did me good," said Bramble, who is 43 and has not fought since November. "I've paced myself and haven't overtrained. I feel great." As for meeting Haugen, he said "that could be a good fight for me before I say goodbye. As good as I feel, I know the clock is ticking." ... The Evander Holyfield vs. John Ruiz fight for the WBA heavyweight t itle is set for Aug. 12 at Paris Las Vegas and will be formally announced today at a news conference at the hotel. The figh! t was postponed from its original June 10 date when Holyfield suffered an injury.

UNLV club boxing coach Skip Kelp is hopeful of organizing a Junior Olympic program, with James Pena serving as coach. Pena took five local amateurs to Kansas City last Saturday for a Las Vegas vs. Kansas card and came back with four winners. The local winners were Ryan Ellul, Melinda Cooper, Anthony Martinez and Antonio Hernandez, while Gil Martinez suffered a loss. ... A Sept. 2 card that has Erik Morales moving up to face WBC featherweight champ Guty Espadas will go to Texas or Southern California. IBF junior lightweight champ Diego Corrales will also be on the card, although probably not against mandatory challenger John Brown. Corrales has already defeated Brown, who moved into the mandatory spot last Sunday by defeating Robbie Peden in Elgin, Ill. Local trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad worked the corner for Brown, who will likely fight an opponent yet t o be determined for the IBF title when Corrales vacates that weight class later this year.