"Ferocious" Fernando "El Feroz" Vargas Appreciation Thread

Damn 2007 has been a tough year for me. First Morales is retired now Vargas.

Vargas fought a tremendous fight last night under the circumstances. Huge weight loss, bad health and inactivity.

He has been in the ring with all the best fighters of his era. Trinidad, De la Hoya, Wright, Quartey, Mosley and Mayorga. He didn't beat them all but he put up a damn good fight everytime and he didn't just go down he went down swinging like a warrior.

"El Feroz" aka "Ferocious" Thanks for the memories and all the great fights.:bears:

 

I agree he fought his heart out all the time. Thanks Vargas!:bears:

 

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Liteace

 

Yeah, love him or hate him theres no doubt.... Vargas always came to fight, and win everytime. Tito, DLH, and Mosley all beat him cause they were just better fighters, but tonight he got beat cause of his shotness, not cause Mayorga's a better fighter. Enjoy your retirement Nando, thanks for the great fights!:bears:

 

He was not quite good enough to be remembered as a great fighter but at his best he was a very good one.

I always get pissed off in mythical match-ups when Vargas is picked to get beaten up by a guy whom everybody thinks would lose to Tito. yes vargas lost to Tito, but not before Tito was forced to fight his ass off (and cheat).

 

Fernando is and a journeyman punching bag in any other era than the 1990's and early 00's. I can't see him beating even Denny Moyer or Ralph Dupas.

 

That is just nonsense Orthodox and you know it.

Nando was a very good fighter. He'll be known for being a warrior and his heart was huge. He lost to a group of fighters who were the era's best(Tito,DLH, and Mosely) But he also has victories over two of the best in that same era.(Wright, Quartey)

Enjoy your family El Feroz, go with God. :bears:

 

if vargas is going to hang his hat on his 'victory' over wrighr, then his career was for shit.

 

I don't think there's a guy I dislike half as much as fernando vargas.

He always talks the biggest bunh of shit about how hard and ghetto he is, yet he's from Oxnard

From the spitting on Ross Thompson, to the disgustingly dirty way he fights I'm glad to see him gone. He fouls like Casamayor, talks shit like Mayorga, and yet he's not half as hard as either one.

Glad to see what happens when an actually underpriveleged badass meets a fake LA wannabe with on over-rated resume and clear personality issues.

good riddance.

 

::

 

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MONTANA MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

 

Antonio Tarver is the only guy I hated more than Vargas this decade.

 

Tarver at least won some big fights. Vargas was shit. He wouldn't have won a title in ANY other decade.

 

thats a good call, but I still think Vargas is worse

 

#Shit fighter, worse person.

He could fight....A BIT...but he was a born fucking loser. Like the Kaiser Chiefs say "You could choose anything, but you choose to lose"He lost to Winky, just in case you heard otherwise.

He was good looking,sure, and could dress with the best.

But then thats why they invented Hollywood.

When you are as mean and as bitter as Fernando was, you will only truncat YOUR OWN talent and YOUR OWN prospects. Fernando wasn't great to start with, and his innate poisonous nature destroyed what was left.

 

They both pissed me off tremendously.

 

He alway's came off as a prick!!

Good fighter,not a great one,but definatley a first class Prick!!

 

dsimon writes:

I never cared for Vargus much but I learned to respect him. Basically it seems as though he was brought along perfectly and had all the right things going for him but somehow he got stopped in his tracks and frankly I am not sure why.

I honestly can't fault anything in the process. I mean I adore Cotto as compared to Nando but Cotto already has made more mistakes than Nando did coming up:dunno:. Its not like they were too fast, or too slow with Nando. I mean if Cotto had been set back after Torres all the haters could have said "ahh they should have never put him in with Judah after Torres" You just can't seem to say that about Nando.

yeah Tito beat him up but so what? he was young and he hit back with some shots of his own... And as Donny pointed out to me Nando had shown some signs of decline prior to that fight.

But Nando was always well rounded and aggressive. And dammit I may not have cared for him much but its hard to say "Nando just was not at the level of De La HOya, Shane and Trinidad... Something sounds wrong about that statement."

Dude just could not really hit the high note. I mean Oscar owned him and Mosley did as well. And Tito was just dirtier, more determined and just had enough to make it through that one and get his hand raised. But frankly? Nando had to be the most well rounded out of all those guys. He always looked crispier and as precise as Shane, he could counterpunch and set up his shots better than Oscar and picked his spots and could punch almost as well as Tito. I would have thought, despite my dislike for him as a fighter, that he would have eclipsed all those guys.

So the story of Nando is perplexing to me. He had all the skills to be great, he had the work ethic, unlike Judah, and he had the strength and ring instinct of a guy like Floyd... and he was handled properly by Duva and company.... So why the fuck didn't it gel? :doh: And to top it all off he is slury and has not even hit thirty yet. Oh well for what it is worth I think he beat Mayorga.

The only thing I could figure is that he might have gotten injured and that shut him down.

 

I'd like to simplify everything by saying that, oh, Felix wasted Fernando and thats why Fernando never added up to anything more....but that would be, in a word, simplistic.

Lots of fighters take brutal beatings, and it doesn't necessarily end their careers, or render them damaged goods, per se. Archie Moore enjoyed a similar fight with Marciano to the one Vargas did with Tito, namely he dropped his man, landed his shots, had his moment and was brutally KO'd when it was all said and done. But Moore, even at an advanced age, came back to win the light-heavy title and have fights with Patterson and Moore.

In Fernandos case, his worst beatings ALL came against guys who had MOVED UP. In fact, he never lost a fight to a guy from the same weight division. Come to think of it, he didn't win many fights over guys from the same weight division either. Campas started at Welter. Shane, Oscar, Felix all moved up from Welter, Lightweight...etc. It seems, therefore, that it could be said that Fernando never really had it to begin with.

His physical decline may have been hastened by the war with Tito and the injuries, but to be fair his skills and speed were always at the bottom of the pile. Shane, Oscar, Tito and especially Wright displayed far far more in the skills dept than Vargas.

I don't think Fernando had great skills. I think he had some skill and combined it with careful matchmaking and a tough-guy attitude to certain limited effect. He was a good fighter, probably a much better amateur. But thats it. In any other era Fernando would lose, and lose badly.

 

With less than 20 fights he defeated Ike Quartey and Winky Wright....not bad...

 

Ike was as laid off as they come...in fact Ike had done fuck all fighting since Oscar.

And he didn't beat Winky. That was a horrible decision.

Wilfredo Rivera, Oscar, Tito, Ike, Mayorga,Campas....all NON 154lbrs at one point in their careers.

Vargas was overrated. End of story.

 

Quartey was laid off for almost 2 years before the De La Hoya fight..and he gave Oscar HELL...but Vargas beat him convincingly 9-3....8-4..

The WINKY fight was very close..but it was NOT a robbery...:nono:..it seem every Winky lose before Hopkins is controversial..even if he gets knockdown 5x in a fight...

Even Vargas wasn't a 154pounder at one point in his career...:dunno:...shit Trinidad started at 140..Winky probably start at 140-47 early..early in his career..

 

The only saving grace of Vargas career was a guy called David Reid. And even his old limp ass went the full 12 with Tito.

 

???????

 

You heard.:nono: :nono:

 

what are you trying to say...? wht do Reid have to do with Vargas?

 

Reid was really really shit. Only for him I would say Vargas was the shittest big name fighter since Primo Carnera.

 

...bs...

 

Fernando really did suck badly. You see, you can make a case for Tito beating Hagler, or Tito beating Ray Robinson, or Tito beating Hearns, or Tito beating Duran, or Tito beating Ray Leonard, or Benitez, or whatever.....but you can NEVER EVER make an argument to the effect that Vargas beats a genuine, classy talented champeen from the best at 147, 154 or 160.

In fact.....Vargas would lose to Moyer, Dupas, Griffith, Minter, Antuofermo.....fuck...could he beat ANYONE???

That guy Hugo Corro would probably beat Fernando.

 

dsimon writes:

Nah you have to watch his earlier fights. He had the goods. And believe me I never cared for him so it isn't nut hugging. I used to root against him every fight with no exceptions. :: It would be less perplexing if he just sucked and got matched well, like Otke or something, but he had serious skills. Then again I simply can't say why he never went anywhere with it. I mean one point I agree with you on is that he was matched up well.... They fed Nando whatever he needed and he went through them like he was supposed to, never skipping a beat.

I also agree that to ascribe his demise to Tito is short sighted, I don't buy it, although Tito did destroy a few promising guys.

I think with Nando it is a real mystery frankly. Maybe his lack of discipline outside the ring, that is a possability.