Columnist Dean Juipe: Trainer: Fitz will give Vargas fits

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 9:12 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.

Believing his man is trained to perfection and thinking their better-known opponent is past his prime, Grant Elvis Phillips predicts Fitz Vanderpool will not only upset but knock out Fernando Vargas when they fight Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Vanderpool, a former Las Vegas resident from Trinidad & Tobago, faces Vargas in a 10-round fight at 154 pounds at the Olympic Auditorium. HBO will televise.

"Vargas is shot," said Phillips, who manages Vanderpool. "He's gone."

Vargas will be fighting for the first time in 10 months, or since losing by 11th-round TKO to Oscar De La Hoya at Mandalay Bay. His recovery time was extended by having received a fine and suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive for steroids.

Vanderpool may be Vargas' handpicked opponent for this comeback fight, yet he brings an element of uncertainty to the bout. His record, 24-4-4 with 13 wins by knockout, isn't eye-catching and his performances haven't always been top-notch, but a fight with Vargas puts him on a grand stage.

"I'm totally confident in this fight," Phillips said. "For starters, Fitz is the type of guy who needs a big fight to get himself up, so I look for him to be sensational.

"He just couldn't get motivated anymore for tune-up or stay-busy fights. He kept asking, 'When does the big time come?' and this is it.

"He's had eight or nine weeks of solid training, better than he's ever had before. Fitz is really sort of like a rolling stone, which is why he's never become anything special in the public's eye, but people are going to see how good he can be when he has a good camp and the right opponent."

Jimmy Montoya has been training Vanderpool in LA.

Vanderpool, 35, is a former Canadian welterweight champion who lost three of his first 15 pro fights but has lost only once in the past eight years -- and that was a disputed, 12-round setback to Hercules Kyvelos in 2000. Vanderpool is also ranked as the No. 1 contender at 154 by the World Boxing Council.

Vargas, 25, is 22-2 with 20 KOs and is a former World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion. But he was down three times in the final round of a 2000 fight with Felix Trinidad and out on his feet in the 11th when his fight with De La Hoya was stopped.

"My fighter is not the guy who has been knocked out in two of his last four fights or been down seven times in the last couple of years," Phillips said of Vargas. "I don't ever think Vargas had a good chin and I think he's been totally destroyed by Trinidad and De La Hoya.

"I also hear he's overlooking Fitz and I think, in his heart, Fernando knows he's finished. He's saying all the right things but he has no confidence.

"He tries everything to build up his own motivation -- using Mike Tyson to walk him in for Trinidad and Julio Cesar Chavez to walk him in for De La Hoya, and now using Buddy McGirt as his trainer -- just because he feels he needs a mental boost.

"But when he gets hit on the chin, he's going to go.

"Fitz will beat him by knockout."

Couser, of Las Vegas, lost the scheduled eight-round heavyweight fight when he was disqualified after the first round. The fight was taped by FSN and will be shown Aug. 3.

"I think what you'll see when the show airs is a guy who was being totally spanked, looking for a way out," Munisteri said this week. "Couser couldn't believe Malcolm was giving him a boxing lesson and he went berserk.

"He used every dirty tactic he could, and then continued to go crazy after the fight was stopped."

Couser, 24-9, had his purse withheld and faces an Aug. 14 disciplinary hearing in front of the California commission. Tann is 8-0 and will fight Aug. 7 and again Oct. 4 as part of the Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney undercard at Mandalay Bay.

Munisteri said he and Tann were approaching Couser with wariness even before the fight at Rancho Mirage.

"He was acting goofy," Munisteri said. "We certainly observed some goofy behavior, such as him refusing to use the locker room that was assigned to him and some of his dealings with the press.

"What we thought might happen in the fight is that he would quit if we could frustrate him, and I think that's what happened. This eight-fight rookie made Couser miss every punch except for a couple that partially landed, and he was starting to tag Couser pretty good."

Couser claimed that Tann was hitting him on top and on the back of the head, which led him to pick up Tann and body slam him to the canvas. Munisteri said Couser was getting hit on top of the head only because "he's a short guy who kept bending at the waist," leaving "only the top of his head exposed."

Munisteri, who has also managed Ike Ibeabuchi and Obed Sullivan, said the unfortunate side effect for Tann in the fight with Couser is that he hasn't been getting his just due.

"All this controversy has taken away from what Malcolm was about to accomplish," he said. "It denied Malcolm the credit he should have received for beating a veteran fighter."

"There's no reason not to be," Corrales said. "He's a class act."

The casino has not yet posted a betting line on the fight, yet it's bound to be close. Corrales is 37-1 with 30 KOs and Casamayor is 29-1 with 18; Corrales lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Casamayor was beaten by Acelino Freitas.

"It's a great fight and sparks will fly," Corrales said.

It's also a fight he pushed for, rather than taking an interim fight with either Lamont Pearson or Goyo Vargas, as had been proposed.

"I said, 'Let's go,' when Casamayor was brought up to me," Corrales said. "I was all for it. I want to be in the good fights and this is going to be one."

Mike Tyson's hearing on assault charges against two men in a New York hotel is scheduled for today. ... Out of the ring since losing to Tyson three years ago, Andrew Golota, 36-4, launches a comeback Aug. 14 in Dover, Del., where he'll face Brian Nix, 18-10. ... Heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, 40-2, meets Fabio Moli, 29-2, Aug. 30 in Germany. ... A mere 118 tickets remain for the Sept. 13 fight at Mandalay Bay between Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley, as some 14,000 tickets have already been sold. The betting line for the fight at the host site is now De La Hoya minus 220 and Mosley plus 180, with the early money on De La Hoya slightly altering the line since it was first posted.