Boxing News : Adding Insult to Injury for Vargas

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AIt was bad enough that Fernando Vargas lost the most important fight of his life, it got even worse when it was found out on late Wednesday night that Vargas had tested positive for a steroid in his post-fight urinalysis.

"On Monday or Tuesday there will be a formal complaint issued by the attorney general," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which sanctioned the fight and issued the test. "At that time Fernando Vargas will have 30 days to answer that complaint and then he will be afforded a hearing before the full Nevada State Athletic Commission.

"But I want to make it very clear, this was a test and he certainly has the right to due process and to explain and give his side of the story."

Steroid testing is relatively new to the sport and to the NSAC.

"We have been randomly testing for steroids for over 10 years," points out Ratner, "but we've put in a policy July 1st and we sent a letter to all the promoters saying that we will have mandatory testing when we take urine specimens and we are going to be testing for steroids also."

Vargas is the first high-profile boxer to come up positive for steroids. Several months ago a pair of mixed martial arts fighters (most notably Josh Barnett) tested positive in the state of Nevada for anabolic steroids.

Vargas and his representatives were notified of this situation on Thursday. Vargas is currently on vacation in Hawaii with his fiancee and two kids.

"I was told that when Fernando found out, he was furious and shocked," stated his co-manager Shelly Finkel. "But we'll find out all the details within the next couple of days."

"I got the initial test result that says he is positive," admitted Rolando Arellano, Vargas' other co-manager. "We're seeking a secondary test result. We want to make sure it's not a 'false-positive' test. We also are getting the bag of supplements that he was taking to make sure he wasn't taking anything by accident.

"The result I have says 'anabolic agent'. Now, is it an anabolic agent to a steroid or is it just an agent of a steroid? And the question further becomes, can the anabolic agent be a derivative of something that is over-the-counter that he was taking?"

Vargas tested positive for Stanozolol, which is best remembered for being linked to Ben Johnson, the disgraced Canadian sprinter who was stripped of his gold medal in the 1988 Olympics for having that banned substance in his system. Stanozolol, has no water retention, thus making it easy to use to cut weight, giving that hard, 'shredded', 'ripped' look.

"We will continue our own personal investigation," continued Arellano. "We want to get down to the bottom-line of it. We're pretty certain that Fernando didn't impose this on himself and the reason I state that is because we received a letter dated, July 1st, 2002, from the commission from Dr. Luther Mack, which specifically says that they're going to be testing for steroids. Fernando's an Olympian, he's been educated in steroids, he's been a professional for six years, he's never had any problems in the past. Why would he do something like this in one of the most significant fights in his career — that's question number one?

"Question number two is, he had an opportunity to ditch the test if he wanted to. He went to the hospital, he was examined and then he want directly to the lab to piss. Now, if you're hiding something, on the circumstances of this fight, I think he could've said, 'Y'know what? I don't want to test, I don't feel right, I'm dizzy, I want to go home', and got away with it. He voluntarily went to the lab."

So the defense strategy of Team Vargas is clear: prove that any steroids in the fighters system was purely accidental. Which many physical trainers and physicians say is very probable with the plethora of nutritional supplements available over-the-counter in this fitness era. But questions do remain about Vargas' preparation in the aftermath of his loss to De La Hoya.

Shortly after the fight, John Philbin, who had been Vargas' physical conditioner for the better part of the last two-and-a-half years (encompassing five fights), announced his resignation from that post citing differences with Mazzan Ali, a nutritionist who was brought in by the fighter during the last month of camp leading into the fight.

"I was opposed to him coming into camp," admitted Philbin, who says he was 'stunned' by the recent news. "I made that known to our team and I felt that I had no rapport with him and watching him, essentially with his diet he had put Fernando on, I was opposed to it. It was primarily a protein diet and to be honest with you, he was also using his own 'supplements' that he felt were the best, and I have no idea what they consisted of either. Fernando, didn't confide in me and he had basically crossed me off in reference to giving him any guidance in that area, which I had the previous five fights and I thought we were successful at it. So I was obviously upset at the whole scenario and didn't like what was happening."

Vargas and Philbin at one time were very close but that changed prior to September 14th.

"When I'm training an athlete, I have to be connected and I got dis-connected very rapidly with Fernando because this guy lived in his room 24-7," explained Philbin, "and then for any of us on the team, the karma for me, was gone completely. the rest of the team had problems themselves but I'm not sure they'd even stand up and admit to it. I was trying to get through to him that I felt what was going on was not appropriate, in particular with his diet."

Philbin comes with impressive credentials on his resume. He is the president and founder of the National Strength and Professionals Association, and All-Pro Conditioning. From 1994 to 2000, he was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Washington Redskins, and has been involved with the U.S. Olympic Training Center as their Strength and Conditioning Director in addition to being the head coach of the 1992 Winter Olympic Bobsled team.

From the very beginning he was opposed to the new addition made by Vargas.

"I heard about this a week before he (Ali) came into camp," said Philbin. "I had a meeting with Rolando and Fernando, and I asked 'Why are you doing this? Have we not worked well together over the past, isn't this my area of expertise? Have you lost confidence in what I do?' And obviously he didn't have much to say. He just said ' Yeah, Doc, I just need another diet plan'. I said 'Well, OK, whatever'. I was upset. Obviously that was a slap in the face to me."

It would be the longest four weeks of his professional career.

"It was the worst month of my career," claimed Philbin, "and I've been training athletes for about 25 years, professional elite athletes. And just to watch this all unfold was miserable for me. My wife and my business partner would tell you because I called them three times a day about it."

Ali had joined Vargas with the recommendation of fellow fighters Omar Sheika and Jameel McCline.

"I'm a little blown away," said Ali. "The kid came in at the same weight. When they told me about the dirty urine, I said, 'It's gotta be a 'false-positive' — there's no way. That was my first opinion and then they don't have a second sample of it because they take two. So they have to wait for a second for a confirmation of it. But I don't see it."

Ali says that in all his year of working with Sheika and McCline that he had never had encountered any problems of this sort. Ali is a physical trainer to bodybuilders in New Jersey with a background in kiniseology and he has worked as an educator in health for the city of Patterson, New Jersey.

So what were his responsibilities with Vargas the last month of camp?

"Just basically to monitor his food, bring it up, bring it down, according to his workouts," he answered. "I monitored his carbs and protein intake because his food intake, prior, was horrible. I mean,they were down to one meal a day, basically in saturation mode, so I basically came in there to teach them how to eat."

But Ali says that he did not monitor everything that went into his body and insists that Vargas had nothing to hide.

"This is my opinion on it. The kid has $25,000 being held, if you don't take your urine, they keep that money," he said. "The purse being so high, percentage of pay-per-view, the millions of dollars that are involved, wouldn't you just give up the $25,000 if you knew your urine was going to be dirty?"

Many had marveled at the chiseled physique that Vargas had brought to the weigh-in, it was a testament to his hard work leading into the fight. But some also believe that it was his way of masking other insecurities that he may have had coming in. Perhaps he was trying to intimidate De La Hoya, who many had derided as a 'blown-up lightweight'. Ultimately, his body was a classic case of 'form over function' and HBO's Larry Merchant noted on the broadcast something to the effect that his 'six-pack' in his stomach couldn't help his chin.

"I think that as young as he is, he lost a little bit of focus ultimately, 100-percent focus on the 12 rounds," Philbin says, "and we were sidetracked a little bit. We were all into it, I'm not saying I wasn't taking photographs of his body everyday after practice, the whole thing. That's normal procedure for Fernando. He does very much like to have a physiquethat's created to look very intimidating for a Mexican and he always shares that with the press.

"We're always excited for him to get in great shape to look good. But at the same time, he took it to another level, which I was not in favor off and I know something about 'tanking' and building reserves in the body and in the muscle tissue. And that was something that was being neglected during the last month with the diet he was on and I felt as if that could have an effect during the fight. I pretty much spelled it out to our coaching staff several weeks prior and it certainly didn't have much of an impact."

Philbin is currently taking some time off before moving onto other ventures, but made this very clear:

"I've got a clean record and I don't want to be tarnished and I don't want to be associated with what I suspected to be, potentially getting myself in harm's way if I would have stayed with this team and stayed with this bodybuilder on this squad. I just don't need that in my career. I'm 45 and he was paying me well, which I admit and I appreciated that. But at
the same time, money's not everything, my reputation is."

MAYWEATHER REACTION

There has been no public statements given by the man who defeated Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya, but his trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr. was more than willing to talk about it. Mayweather dropped by the La Brea Boxing Gym this Friday afternoon, where Marco Antonio Barrera was conducting a public workout for the local media. Barrera is preparing for a November 2nd date at the MGM Grand against Johnny Tapia.

"I was surprised," said Mayweather. "I didn't hear anything about it 'till I got here today. Vargas says he wants a rematch and even though there shouldn't be one, we'll give him one anyway.

"If he took something extra and came in as an un-ordinary person to make him stronger, if he couldn't beat Oscar on steroids, how does he expect to beat him without?"

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