Vargas fined, suspended

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

The two limousines and the BMW convertible sitting curbside in front of the Sawyer Building indicated something of significance was going on inside.

Yet when all was said and done in the Fernando Vargas disciplinary hearing conducted Wednesday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the man apparently most responsible for putting the professional fighter on the hot seat was neither chauffeured to the proceedings nor in attendance. In fact, his name was only mentioned in passing.

But, by inference if not specific accusation, the bottom line led to one Mazan Ali, an unlicensed nutritionist.

Ali, Vargas' representatives contend, was the one who secretly added a steroid supplement to the array of body-building and health-related tablets and mixtures Vargas was ingesting daily prior to his Sept. 14 junior middleweight fight with Oscar De La Hoya at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. As a result of the steroid, Vargas later tested positive for a substance that is banned in only two states, New York and Nevada.

After a nearly two-hour hearing and some debate, the NSAC imposed a penalty on Vargas that neither exonerated nor debilitated him: a nine-month suspension and a $100,000 fine, plus administrative fees and a commitment to become involved in an unspecified drug-related educational program.

"It's a stiff penalty yet I'm still happy for him," said interested observer Mike Tyson, who owned the BMW parked out front. "It's nine months, but two have already elapsed. He's got seven to go, which he can use to clear his head."

Vargas, via lead attorney Pat English, had a counterproposal after it became apparent the commission was about to sit him down for nine months.

"We'd like to suggest a six-month suspension and Fernando will donate the entire purse from his next fight to a drug-awareness campaign," English offered, implying that Vargas' co-managers, Rolonado Arellano and Shelly Finkel, might already be working on a low- to mid-level fight that would pay Vargas something in the range of $100,000.

NSAC chairman Luther Mack dismissed English's proposal and called for a vote of the board's five panelists on the motion on the floor. The measure passed 4-1, with Dr. Flip Homansky dissenting.

"I respect the sanctions but what I would have done wouldn't have carried any sanctions," Homansky said. "That might have led to the fighter leaving here thinking he pulled one over on us, but I don't really think that would have been the case."

Homansky favored a penalty similar to what two mixed martial arts contestants received from the NSAC when they appeared before the board earlier this year. One, Rick Roufus, was neither suspended nor fined, while the other, Josh Barnett, was not fined but was suspended for six months.

Homansky contends that the NSAC is still in the midst of a period where it should be somewhat more forgiving for steroid violations, at least until more stringent guidelines formally take effect Jan. 1, 2003.

But a majority of the NSAC was determined to set an example, and Vargas knew he was in a precarious position even though he claimed to have no knowledge that he had been taking an illegal drug.

"I place the blame on no one but myself," he said. "Using steroids is a cowardly act; it's cheating, that's what it is. I want to serve as an example that (fighters) better know what they put in their mouth, because at the end of the day they're responsible.

"I take full responsibility."

He said Ali had been a member of his training team for eight weeks prior to the De La Hoya fight, but that he has since been dismissed.

Without naming Ali but saying he had his "suspicions," English alleged that someone had "spiked" a bottle of pills and added the banned substance "to the normal contents of the bottle." As such, he threw his client to the mercy of the court.

"This has been a traumatic experience for Fernando," he said. "The test result is not in dispute."

Accompanied by his family and dressed in a suit and looking considerably larger than his 154-pound fighting weight, Vargas was respectful and orderly throughout the hearing. He said he marveled at his conditioning prior to the De La Hoya fight but thought it was solely the result of the hard work he had been putting in.

"I was very happy (at the time)," he said. "I hired individuals ... and I never questioned what they handed me. I saw the effects: I saw that I looked good.

"That's how ignorant I was."

Allowing that there was "friction" within his camp and that a second member of his team -- physical trainer Jon Philbin -- quit the night of the fight, Vargas still thought everything pertaining to him was on the up and up.

"I obviously knew I was going to be tested for steroids," he added, having been in receipt of a letter from the commission dated July 1 that specified that steroids were now part of the Nevada testing process.

As such, commission member Dr. Tony Alamo made a motion for a six-month suspension and colleague John Bailey had it amended to add a $100,000 fine.

After English proposed an alternative, Mack summarily rejected the plea.

"We think this is the right thing to do," he said, throwing his weight behind the Alamo-Bailey motion. "From my position, we are being fair."

Alamo, Bailey, Mack and Skip Avensino (who was listening in Reno via speaker phone) voted in favor of the motion, which required only a majority to pass.

Even in voting against the motion, Homansky acknowledged there had been wrongdoing.

"It's an illegal act," he said of Vargas having stanozol, a steroid, in his system. "And it did give Fernando an advantage."

Vargas, 24 years old and 22-2 as a professional, lost to De La Hoya by 11th-round technical knockout in a spirited fight. His suspension will be lifted June 14, 2003.