Columnist Dean Juipe: Fighter apt to get hit with fine

Dean Juipe

Monday, Sept. 30, 2002 | 10:13 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.

Impoverished as the State of Nevada allegedly is, someone from the governor's office should begin preparing a thank-you card for Fernando Vargas.

He's going to write the state a check, and likely for a sizable sum at that.

Vargas' contribution to the general fund won't be made willingly or without appeal. But it would seem to be forthcoming, whether he likes it or not.

Vargas, it was learned late last week, has tested positive for steroids following his Sept. 14 loss to Oscar De La Hoya at Mandalay Bay. Steroids are a banned substance, and the fact stanozolol showed up in Vargas' urine makes him a bad boy in the state's eyes.

He immediately expressed his "shock" at the steroid revelation and implied that if he was guilty of taking them, it was without his consent or knowledge.

But Vargas isn't the most credible of characters and his denial certainly rings hollow. In fact, assuming the test result was correct, he has almost no leg to stand on and anything he might say in his defense at a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing is apt to be dismissed as self-serving rhetoric.

He might very well insinuate negligence or blame his since-departed nutritionist for slipping him the steroids, yet that wouldn't seem to mesh with the facts in the case in that the nutritionist left Vargas (the night of the De La Hoya fight) because he objected to the fighter becoming too much of an (expletive) "bodybuilder."

This is just a guess, but Vargas may have thought the steroids were worth the risk. He may have reasoned that he might not get caught, or that it was a chance worth taking and that the steroids might be the difference in a fight with De La Hoya.

Steroids add muscular content and Vargas wanted to be as big and strong for the fight as possible. Is it too much of a stretch to imagine him thinking he would do anything to beat De La Hoya, in that he repeatedly said the fight was "life and death" to him?

But now he has lost the fight and tested positive, which is a double whammy of sorts.

NSAC chairman Luther Mack is determined to extract restitution from Vargas and if this goes to a hearing look for Mack to be especially diligent in suggesting and meting out punishment. A suspension could be in order, although one of fewer than nine months would be irrelevant and one for more than nine months might qualify as cruel and unusual punishment.

Which makes a hefty fine all the more practical, and Vargas is certainly vulnerable after hauling in $12 million or so for fighting De La Hoya.

The NSAC has been known to issue a stiff fine, having socked Mike Tyson for $3 million on June 30, 1998, when it was penalizing him for biting Evander Holyfield's ear. (It also suspended Tyson for one year at the same time.)

Ultimately, Vargas will have to accept responsibility for the infraction under the premise that he and he alone had the final say on what he was ingesting. He can neither plead ignorance nor that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

He can, however, bring his checkbook to the hearing. Nevada made $400,000 on just taxes from tickets and the TV rights to Vargas' fight with De La Hoya, and now it's about to add to that windfall.