FOR VARGAS, IT'S ABOUT VENGEANCE ANYDE LA HOYA REMATCH GOES THROUGH MOSLEY.

Byline: Robert Morales Staff Writer

Fernando Vargas has not consistently been the attacking fighter that earned him the moniker ``Ferocious'' since first being savagely beaten by Felix Trinidad Jr., then not quite as savagely beaten by Oscar De La Hoya.

Vargas claims the reasons are back problems and weight issues he has battled for years. Others believe Vargas could be a shot fighter because of the 12th-round technical knockout loss to Trinidad in December 2000 and the 11th-round TKO loss to his hated rival, De La Hoya, in September 2002.

One thing is certain: Vargas is going to have to be at his ferocious best tonight against ``Sugar'' Shane Mosley if he wants to continue his career as an elite fighter, and fulfill his dream of getting a rematch with De La Hoya.

Vargas (26-2, 22 KOs), of Oxnard, and Pomona's Mosley (41-4, 35 KOs) will square off in the main event at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Their 12-round fight is a World Boxing Association junior middleweight title eliminator, and HBO pay-per-view will televise.

``I don't need to fight anymore if I don't want to,'' said Vargas, 28, who credits co-manager Rolando Arellano for putting his money in the right places. ``But I want to take care of business this year and do what I've got to do to top off this great year by beating Shane Mosley, and then I've got vengeance on my mind.

``There is only one fighter out there that beat me that is still active, but the only person on my mind right now is Shane Mosley. But vengeance is on my mind. I've got to look great for me and myself to demand, and for my fans to demand, vindication.''

Vargas was knocked down five times in his loss to Trinidad. Reporters covering the fight were amazed at the way the courageous Vargas kept getting up, but it was a brutal beating he suffered.

He came back five months later and stopped Wilfredo Rivera in the sixth round, but the medium-hitting Rivera decked Vargas in the second round, and Rivera was past his prime. Vargas then won the World Boxing Association belt with a seventh-round TKO of Shibata Flores in September 2001. Flores, another light hitter, wobbled Vargas.

De La Hoya was next, and after he and Vargas engaged in a news conference shoving match and a war of words during the promotion, De La Hoya flattened Vargas with a monster left hook in the 11th round before stopping Vargas while pummeling him on the ropes.

Vargas has fought four times since that disheartening defeat and won all four, two by TKO. But beating these fighters - Fitz Vanderpool, Tony Marshall, Raymond Joval and Javier Castillejo - is nothing to boast about. He has simply not looked like the old Vargas, the relentless one. Moreover, he took 15 months off between the Marshall and Joval fights to rehabilitate a bulging disc in his back.

``Trinidad physically beat him, De La Hoya mentally destroyed him,'' said Mosley's trainer, John David Jackson. ``He is damaged goods now, I don't care what they say. Shane is going to capitalize on that damage.''

Danny Smith, who trains Vargas, admits that Vargas is not the same fighter who, in his victory over Campas, became the youngest junior middleweight champion at 21 years, five days old. But more because of age than anything else.

``He could definitely not be the same fighter he was at 20,'' Smith said. ``But I think a lot of people that Trinidad has faced, were shot directly after the fight. I think Vargas has come back and fought a lot of good fights after being viciously beaten up the way he was.''

Smith, however, cautions anyone who believes that Vargas right now isn't close to the fighter who made five defenses of his IBF belt before losing to Trinidad. For the first time in many years, Vargas, who admits to eating too much Mexican food, did not balloon to near 200 pounds between fights.

Vargas began this camp at 182 pounds, was down to 166 a month ago and, according to Smith, on Monday weighed 156 - only two pounds over the junior middleweight limit at which he and Mosley will fight.

Before his last fight, against Castillejo in August, Vargas had to go from 193 to 154 in 11 weeks.

``It is all due to his weight,'' Smith said. ``I knew if I would teach him how to be more defensive, he would be OK until he got hold of this weight issue. He is going to be extremely ferocious (today). He is not going to box one minute.''

But will all of this be for nothing, at least in regards to De La Hoya? De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions is co-promoting this card, so De La Hoya has been in the thick of things.

``I respect Fernando Vargas, but that fight will never, ever happen,'' said De La Hoya, scheduled to fight Ricardo Mayorga for his World Boxing Council junior middleweight belt May 6. ``The reason why I say never is that I am satisfied with the win that I got against him.

``It was a great fight and I was able to knock him out. There is no reason for me to fight him anymore - my deal with him is done and over with and I am moving on to other things and he should, too.''

De La Hoya said Friday that he likely will fight only once more after facing Mayorga, and that likely will be against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Said Mosley of Vargas: ``He is making a big mental mistake by trying to look past me trying to get to Oscar.

Robert Morales, [phone], Ext. 2213

robert.morales(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) ``I don't need to fight anymore if I don't want to,'' says Fernando Vargas, who weights in at 153 1/2 pounds.

(2 -- color) ```He is making a big mental mistake by trying to look past me,'' says Shane Mosley, weighing in at 152 pounds.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News