Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.
Despite being in Las Vegas and being housed in all but adjoining accommodations, Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas are to have no physical contact whatsoever until they touch gloves in the ring Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
That separation of power was very much in evidence Tuesday at the final prefight press conference, when the fighters and their entourages were divided by a pair of staunch security guards as well as two plate glass windows that split the dais into halves.
"Once we had a (spate) of things, such as confrontations between Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman, and Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, and Ross Thompson and Vargas, and then Oscar and Fernando in Los Angeles, we decided we couldn't take any chances," said Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner, who insisted on the buffer zone. "It was my decision and we're not even going to have the traditional posing.
"I don't want to take a chance on anything spoiling this fight."
Proximity was an issue soon enough as De La Hoya's outspoken trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., chided Vargas with a loosely rhymed poem with inflections straight from an old-time revival. "Mr. Wanna Be Ferocious Vargas," Mayweather called the World Boxing Association 154-pound champion, playing off the fighter's nickname.
Later, a Vargas confidant remarked "I'm glad they put this protective glass between us (because) it keeps the crap coming out of Mayweather from ruining my Italian suit."
Insults aside between the nonparticipants, Vargas and De La Hoya were moderately respectful if not downright amicable. They're saving their venom for a fight that has already sold out the arena and will be seen, according to promoter Bob Arum, by people from Bangladesh to Indonesia.
De La Hoya, the World Boxing Council junior middleweight champion, is contractually obligated to receive a minimum of $8 million. Vargas gets $3.5 million plus a healthy share of the pay-per-view receipts, bringing his estimated take to at least $6 million.
De La Hoya, 34-2 with 27 knockouts, is a minus 230 favorite in the sports book at Mandalay Bay. Vargas, 22-1 with 20 KOs, is a plus 190.
"I know it's going to be a tough fight, a hard, rugged fight," De La Hoya said. "But I'm ready. I did my homework."
Each fighter and his camp members arrived simultaneously from opposite angles at the press conference, and it has been decided that one (Vargas, by the flip of a coin) will enter the ring first and be introduced last come fight time. Also resolved was a minor issue involving the specifics of the gloves, with Vargas reluctantly -- or as a matter of macho posturing -- agreeing that both the WBA and WBC rules mandate wearing 10-ounce gloves and not the 8-ounce variety he was suggesting.
"I've always fought with 8-ounce gloves," he said, perhaps oblivious to the WBA rules or perhaps in violation of them.
With the promotion down to its final days and operating smoothly, Arum praised the accessibility of the fighters and likened Mandalay Bay to the old Caesars Palace. "They've captured the magic that Caesars once had," he said. "No one is doing fights anymore like Mandalay Bay, not even the MGM. I can see the difference between an event here and one at the MGM, where they just don't quite have the feel for it."
Beyond the international pay-per-view audience, the fight will also be available locally at 15 closed-circuit sites. Arum called the $50 PPV fee reasonable and said a fight of this importance was worth the extra $10 that he would normally charge for a run-of-the-mill title fight or showdown.
"There's not a corner of the world where people won't be able to watch this fight," he said with a certain glee.
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