Columnist Dean Juipe: Oscar: SoCal can only hold one champ

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Making a second appearance on a conference call to promote his Sept. 14 fight with Fernando Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya said Wednesday that a territorial dispute is at the base of their long-standing rivalry.

The junior middleweights, who will meet at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, both hail from Southern California.

"Every fighter I've fought from the greater Los Angeles area -- except Shane Mosley -- has had some beef with me," De La Hoya said. "I guess Southern California is only big enough for one champion.

"It's about bragging rights. We want to control our turf, that's where the anger comes from."

Adding that he once made a $5,000 donation to the gym in Oxnard where Vargas toiled, De La Hoya said "we both come from families of great pride, but (the rivalry) goes beyond that. The only person from Oxnard I have a problem with is Vargas -- he's the only one starting all this trouble."

Vargas, the World Boxing Association champion with a 22-1 record, has made it a priority of late to stress his physique in comments to the media. He said people will marvel when they see him with his shirt off.

"Let him lift weights or do whatever he wants to do, I don't think it'll help him in the ring," De La Hoya countered. "I grew up on the streets of East L.A. and those streets are tough.

"Once he feels that first punch, it's going to be a wake-up call."

De La Hoya, the World Boxing Council champion at 154 pounds, is 34-2 and is a minus 210 betting favorite. Vargas is a plus 170.

"I know I'm going to win this fight," De La Hoya said. "All the trash talk doesn't matter when you get in the ring. You can count on me that I'm going to be ready and be calm, cool and collected -- and that I'll get a win.

"I'm going to be very focused."

He said his previously injured left hand is "good," that his camp at Big Bear, Calif., has been "injury free" and that his current weight is 161 pounds. He also promised a knockout victory.

"This fight is meant for a knockout," he said. "Vargas is a fighter who hits hard and is strong, but he never puts four or five punches together. Maybe with the pace I'm going to set, that will be the difference."

Barrera, 55-3, is coming off a tough decision win over Erik Morales, held June 22 at the MGM. He also owns a victory over Naseem Hamed at the same site, plus has wins over a number of prominent fighters including Kennedy McKinney, Agapito Sanchez, Eddie Cook and Frankie Toledo.

Tapia, 52-2-1, is a former junior bantamweight and bantamweight world champion who won the International Boxing Federation featherweight title with a win over Manuel Medina last April in New York. His best wins have come against Danny Romero, Nana Konadu and Jorge Eliecer Julio.